A new vision is emerging over the Gaza War being described as “potentially one of the great days ever in civilization.” In brief, the U.S. and Israel presented Hamas with an ultimatum this week “to walk away from Gaza or be wiped out.” Key elements of the U.S. endorsed 20-point plan hinge on a presumption that Hamas will agree to disarm in exchange for amnesty. Moreover, it presumes belligerents agree the U.S. and Israel are entitled to redevelop Palestine; accept they’ll pour humanitarian aid into the enclave; and embrace a reconstruction effort called the “Board of Peace” to be chaired by Trump.
Some in Israel’s far right are calling the plan a “total failure,” whilst foreign ministers from the Middle East, including — Qatar, Jordan, UAE, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt — all welcome their “sincere efforts.” All as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth summonsed hundreds of U.S. military officials to an in-person meeting to Washington. Pope Leo called it “concerning,” but for Hegseth it’s a much needed clarification of the United States “Warrior Ethos.”
Hegseth — who served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army National Guard and was deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan — issued new directives that will “fix decades of decay” by raising the physical standards for everyone in uniform to a "male level;” lift restrictions on rules of engagement; end DEI initiatives, racial quotas, and toughen up grooming standards. Hegseth continues:
Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon leading commands around the country and the world. It’s a bad look. It is bad, and it’s not who we are.
In keeping with the nonpartisan tradition of the armed services, military leaders sat mostly stone-faced at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday while Hegseth spoke. Then, Marine One touched down with its keynote speaker. “I’ve never walked onto a stage this quiet before.” Trump continues:
US cities should be military training grounds. There are a lot civil disturbances around the country which won’t get out of control once your involved. They're very unsafe places and we're going to straighten them out one by one. We’ll see what happens. It’ll be an insult to the US if I’m not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It’ll be a big insult to our country because no one has ever solved as many wars as I have ended. I’ve settled seven wars, and hope for an eighth—if Hamas accepts our proposal for Gaza.
Which brings us to the Middle East; Trump’s proposition to reconstruct Gaza; and Russell Vought: Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Founder of the Center for Renewing America, it was Vought who first schooled Trump on how to invoke the military in domestic law enforcement in 2020. In undercover recordings, they discussed developing a "shadow government to unleash the U.S. military on American civilians.” Drawing concern from civil-military observers, the military’s remit is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
Aggrieved, historically, by British kings using their power to the detriment of civil liberties, the English Bill of Rights in 1689 limited the powers of the monarchy, affirmed parliamentary supremacy, and established fundamental civil liberties. A nod to the Glorious Revolution, America’s founders followed suit by vesting the same powers in the U.S. Congress.
Alternatively, U.S. law enforcement are state level institutions designed to maintain public order, public safety, and enforce their state’s unique criminal codes. Law enforcement officers are trained to enforce a state's laws, whilst simultaneously protecting their citizen’s civil rights, too.
As a counterexample, when otherwise peaceful protesters were tear gassed by D.C. Metropolitan Police in Lafayette Square on 1 June 2020, Trump via Vought had vociferously been urging U.S. governors to quell the often violent George Floyd Protests with the National Guard “or I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem.” Before the Ashburton House — which had been defaced by graffiti and damaged by a fire set during protests the night before — Trump held a Bible and posed for a photo op. Vought had transcribed both chapter and verse.
President Trump, Lafayette Square on 1 June 2020
The real scripture chase here is called the The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878: a federal law that prohibits the use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement, with exceptions only when authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress. This nearly 150-year-old law was a reaction to Reconstruction, and embodies an American tradition that sees military interference in civilian affairs as a threat to both democracy and personal liberty.
As OMB Director under the current Trump administration, Vought put together a power point presentation enabling the president to digest how to work around Posse Comitatus and unleash the National Guard across American cities. Bullet points include: 1) Invoking the Home Rule Act; 2) Invoking the Insurrection Act; 3) Encouraging the states to declare an immigration “invasion” at their borders; 4) Amend Posse Comitatus in Congress (rider alert); and 4) use financial leverage during government shutdowns.
On 1 October 2025, the federal government of the United States began to shut down as a result of congressional inaction on passing appropriations legislation for the 2026 fiscal year. It has furloughed roughly 800,000 federal employees, and left another 700,000 working without pay. The U.S. Congress is at a stalemate over partisan disagreements over federal spending levels, foreign aid rescissions, and health insurance subsidies.
Promising cuts to democrat agencies, Vought’s role as OMB Director authorizes him to decide which services and programs are sidelined, prioritized, or slashed during a shutdown. Which further played into Trump’s agenda to dismantle the Department of Education; downgrade the Environment Protection Agency; and announce on Thursday an additional $1 trillion in military spending for 2026.
Tens of thousands of National Guard troops have been federalized and deployed to Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago and the southern US border to assist ICE with immigration enforcement in 2025. Portland, Memphis, San Francisco, New York City and beyond are in queue. At Marine Corps Base Quantico this week, Trump told military leaders to view the deployments as “training grounds for our military. America as under invasion, and we are waging a war from within.”
However, the military wasn’t designed for domestic operations. Their Rules of Engagement (ROE) are designed for foreign adversaries. They’re trained to define circumstances, limitations, and conditions for the use of force. Moreover, the ROE is designed to comply with the laws of war, political objectives of the each mission, and to align with and defend the U.S. Constitution.
While the U.S. military is trained in oversees rules of engagement, where they are untrained and thus woefully inept is in grasping the constitutional rights of citizens, and non-citizens, on American soil. On 22 September 2025, Trump declared Antifa — a highly decentralized array of groups who use speech, posters, flyers, protest marches, digital activism and community organizing to promote anti-fascist / anti-racist politics — a domestic terrorist organization. It renders anyone on American soil lifting their voice to authoritarianism a terrorist, and instructs his agencies, e.g., the federalized National Guard to respond. Academics, legal experts, and others argue the action both exceeds the authority of the presidency, and violates the First Amendment.
Soldiers are trained to protect American citizens from foreign adversaries, and defend the U.S. Constitution. As Americans themselves are now declared “the enemy within,” it would behoove the 450,000 US National Guard reserves; 1.3 million active-duty military personal, and the “fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon” to brush up on the fine print of their oaths before signing Hegseth’s mandatory nondisclosure agreements, or submitting to Hegseth’s forthcoming polygraph tests. And given the president’s rather passive understanding of the First Amendment, it might be wise for all Americans to do the same.
Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran in 2025
What is emerging is something more surgical and strategically devastating: a multi-vector pressure campaign designed to accelerate internal collapse while maintaining deniability about direct regime change objectives. Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum in early February 2025 restoring "maximum pressure" on Iran. A 2025 National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-2), denied the acquisition of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Moreover, the United States has tried to stop Iran's oil exports through a campaign of sanctions, maritime seizures, and targeting "shadow fleet" tankers, particularly aiming for zero exports to choke off regime funding. Despite these efforts, Iran has continued to export oil, primarily to China. Thus, the architecture of the protests operate through the lens of financial dealmaking rather than military occupation.
Iran's rial collapsed to 1.46 million per dollar in early January 2026, down from approximately 70 rials per dollar before the 1979 revolution, and 32,000 during the 2015 nuclear deal. This isn't economic warfare in abstract. It’s the manifestation of hyperinflation rendering life savings worthless, food prices beyond reach, and the material dissolution of social contract between state and citizen.
The military dimension exists not as invasion but psychological calibration. Following June 2025's "Operation Midnight Hammer," U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities which Trump claimed "obliterated" their program came with a threat from Republican lawmakers that Trump would "bomb the hell out of them" if uranium enrichment resumes in Iran.
Yet here surfaces the central paradox: Iran possesses one million active and reserve soldiers, with the IRGC commanding 150,000 battle-hardened troops. The Basij militia adds hundreds of thousands more, and mountainous terrain and vast urban areas make invasion incomparably more complex than Iraq or Venezuela. Direct American military conquest is operationally prohibitive, which is precisely why Trump's strategy calls for stirring regime change from within.
Trump's otherwise gallant mission to intervene on the side of Iranian protestors operates as psychological warfare. Take Venezuela. Last Saturday's charade in Caracas succeeded only because Venezuela had become an empty shell state, and was turning internally toward democratic reform. Trump can isolate and remove individual leaders from hollowed regimes, but what Trump cannot transform or control are countries like Iran that operate from a complex theological playbook. No holy war has ever fundamentally been won.
What emerges is strategy of managed collapse: economic strangulation through sanctions enforcement; military strikes calibrated to degrade capabilities without triggering full war; rhetorical support for protesters to energize opposition while maintaining deniability; and cultivation of exiled alternatives without formal endorsement. Trump stated in May 2025 that "I think we're getting close to maybe doing a deal" on Iran's nuclear program, while simultaneously noting "we don't have a lot of time to wait.” Keeping diplomatic off-ramps available while tightening the vise is key.
The objective isn't American governance of Iran, but rather Iran’s political reconstruction enabling American influence in the Middle East. Whether this produces a military junta, secular republic, warlord democratic transition, sectarian fragmentation, or a Pahlavi restoration is irrelevant. What Trump wants is the containment of Iran; to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; normalize relations in the region; leverage economic ties, secure multi-trillion dollar investment commitments from Gulf partners. And what Trump wants as of late—Trump 'absolutely' gets.
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