I & I Editorial BoardTucker Carlson, the TV personality who currently enjoys an enormous gap between the size of his audience and his intellectual abilities, has decided to declare war on the Trump administration for the sin of taking Iran’s nuclear ambitions seriously.
President Donald Trump hit back with a post on Truth Social saying “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, ‘IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene jumped in with Carlson saying, “Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA.”
The mainstream media is loving all this because they delight in anything that undermines Trump. But from our perspective, Carlson hasn’t come close to making his case.
Carlson seems to think, without much evidence, that this is a repeat of the Iraq fiasco, wherein the U.S. justified war based on a false belief that Saddam Hussein had a vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
At the time, there was good reason to believe Hussein did, if only because he was so defiant about allowing international inspectors, per the ceasefire agreement he signed at the end of the Gulf War, to verify that he wasn’t building or storing WMDs.
It was only after U.S. troops toppled Hussein’s regime that it became clear that he was engaged in theatrics in an apparent attempt to raise his stature in the region by making the world think he had WMDs.
So, is that what Iran is doing? And are we falling for the same ruse again?
Carlson and Co. clearly believe so.
“I feel like I’ve been hearing that Iran is weeks away from a nuclear weapon for at least 25 years,” he said on his show recently. That episode featured “world-renowned economist” Jeffrey Sachs (who endorsed Jill Stein for president) saying, as Carlson nodded, that:
“Iran does not want a nuclear weapon, Iran’s neighbors like the Saudis and others in the Gulf do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Iran’s major ally, Russia, does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and Iran doesn’t want a nuclear weapon.
“But,” he went on, “Iran does not want to be, uh, defeated militarily by Israel, does not want to be bombed to hell by Israel, and does not want to be sanctioned to death economically by the United States.”
We’re not sure how being a “world-renowned economist” gives Sachs authority to talk about the Middle East or national security issues. And we are quite certain that Tucker Carlson does not have access to the same facts that Trump and his team do.
But that doesn’t seem to matter. To Carlson and Co., this is all just a smokescreen by Israel and warmongering neocons to justify regime change in Iran.
We’re no fans of Carlson, as readers may have noticed, and yet we are willing to concede that concerns about the U.S. getting entangled in another long, drawn-out war in the Middle East on false pretenses shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.
But Iran is not Iraq. And Trump is no George Bush, suffering delusions that he can turn Iran into a model of democracy that will spread across the region. Trump isn’t deploying troops to the region. He isn’t using a terrorist attack on the U.S. to justify an unprovoked invasion of an unrelated country. All he’s done so far is warn Iran of consequences.
What’s more, everyone (that is, every reasonable person) agrees that a mullah-run Iran with a nuclear weapon is intolerable.
Which makes Carlson’s unshakable belief that Iran doesn’t want to develop nukes difficult to swallow.
Iran’s leaders can’t be unaware of what happened to Hussein when he kept pretending to have WMDs. And if Iran’s leaders truly do want peace with Israel and an end to U.S. sanctions – as Sachs says – there is an easy solution. Stop calling for Israel’s destruction and supporting groups trying to carry that out. And let international inspectors verify that Iran is not making weapons-grade uranium. Trump offered Iran a deal like that, and they walked away.
To the contrary, the fact that Iran isn’t trying to make a deal suggests that it hopes to keep everyone at bay until it does manage to build a bomb, at which point everything changes.
Winston Churchill once wrote that “It is a joke in Britain to say that the War Office is always preparing for the last war.” Carlson and like thinkers seem to be making the same mistake. Except in this case, they’re fighting against the last war.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Support Independent Journalism
Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists from the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day -- without fear or favor.
We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we believe in a free press and because we aren't afraid to tell the truth, even if it means being targeted by the left.
We are 100% reader supported!!
If you like what you see, please feel free to donate.
And be sure to tell your friends!
I heard President Clinton state on NPR that Iraq DID have WMD because he said we had given them chemicals for chemical warfare against Iran and that Hussain used half of it on the Kurds rather than Iran, and that they they still had the rest. It is the only time I ever heard this stated. I suppose it is a moot point now and doesn’t matter. It was so naive of our politicians to think a country which calculates hundreds of years into the future for their success would change in a flash to a democratic republic. But there has been a back and forth about the WMD and what the people in power knew and know I suppose will never be told.
It’s true. WE got that information as an intel briefing in the military. I believe we sold the WMDs to the Shah before he was deposed.
Jonathan G. Thank you for the information. It is validating to have what I remembered confirmed — also having the assurance of someone in an intel briefing. Impressive! Thank you for your service in government. Betty H.
It’s been said before. Take people at their word. Hitler told the world his goals. Putin told the world his goals. The Ayatollah and Iran told the world their goals. We ignore their own words at our peril.
Trump has told us his goals, too. All of them are good for America. It SHOULD make people wonder why Demunists hate Trump so much, but apparently thought is no longer accessible to Demunists.
In becoming an intellectual gadfly, Carlson has lost all sense of proportion, all sense of right and wrong. He has become bound and constrained by his ever tightening beliefs, and seems to acknowledge only what is novel and controversial, rather than that which is new and important.
One need only to look at his guests, which has increasingly become a sideshow of crackpots and malcontents. But instead of questioning them, he gives them an open mike and gobs of time to blather on, never interrupting with even the mildest question or call for clarification.
I used to be a real Carlson fan, as well as a paying subscriber, but no longer. The scribe has become the fool,
I guess I am part of “Carlson and Co.” and have never heard him state that Iran ‘doesn’t want nukes.’
I have listened to everything Tucker has done since leaving Faux News and he has consistently questioned authorities based on past behavior of our War Machine; we haven’t succeeded in past wars since 1953 and that wasn’t even a victory. Heck, we told Russia we wouldn’t move NATO eastward and then promptly did it. Putin told us not to move Ukraine in NATO’s direction and we promptly did it. Another unwinnable war.
We have been downrange for the War Machine in the last 30 years and are not against killing Iran’s criminals so let’s do that. How about the Middle East overthrow Iran with our assistance?
We question our lobbyists who profit from war as Carlson does and we trust Trump, but question the rest of the Blob.
Respectfully
IF the likes of MTG, Tucker, Steven Bannon, Alex Jones….are the arbiters of who is or isn’t America First/MAGA then I’m out. For the most part they’re just bomb throwing nutters.
I am afraid everything has changed then. Because Iran already has the atomic bomb.
“And let international inspectors verify that Iran is not making weapons-grade uranium.”
Q – Does Israel allow international inspection of the nukes they built with uranium they stole from the US?
A – That’s anti-semitic!!!!!
It all began in 1982. “Israel will have nuclear weapons within months”, spoken several times EXACTLY THE SAME, every few years thereafter. So this time is no different, other than the Globalists want to impose DIGITAL CURRENCY CONTROL over the world – Globalist psionist satanists located in the City of London. Brain-dead Biden and Warp-Speed Trump are the Globalist TAG-TEAM – Hegelian Dialectic on steroids. Total FRAUD, just like an “Israel” consisting of TWO Tribes that were always Judah “If” they even had Hebrew genetics, which they DO NOT. Carry some more water for Mossad. Issueinsight – lolol, …Yeah right..
I am disappointed to read this editorial from I&I. The causes belli justifications are weak rehashing. Tucker and many others are correct to die on this hill to stop this misadventure.
Constitutional Republic or empire. Pick one.
Unfortunately, civilization is never black or white, republic or empire, and history seldom what we are told it is/was. “Somewheres in between” as Lincoln might have said. Our own government has whipsawed us regarding Iran; from before the Shah. Tucker seems to be afraid of repeating mistakes and I appreciate that sentiment because I share the feeling. And that’s what they are; feelings, emotional reactions and a large dose of fear, not unfounded but frankly, not good policy in the face of many threats from a country who, since 1979 has invoked “Death To America”, “Death To Israel”, and in much more modest ways said the same things about Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and the UAE. Iran’s goals are wrapped in complexity and the ever changing global dynamics. So, again, nothing is either or, republic or empire. And Iran is not Iraq and Trump is not W or Carter or Clinton or Obama. And Tucker today is not Tucker of 2024.