by Jacob G. Hornberger

January 14, 2026

President Trump and the U.S. national-security establishment (i.e., the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA) are ramping up the U.S. war machine for another military attack on a sovereign and independent nation — this time, Iran.

Their rationale? They say that they just want to help the Iranian protestors who are being killed by the Iranian dictatorship and its own national-security establishment.

Don’t make me laugh. Come on! Why not the same brutal honesty about Iran as we have seen with Venezuela? At least Trump, the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA are not justifying their extra-judicial killings on the high seas and their military kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by claiming to be helping the Venezuelan people.

After all, don’t forget: Trump and the U.S. national-security establishment are now working with the tyrannical Chavista socialist regime, even while the Chavista regime continues to jail and torture dissidents.

Moreover, we also shouldn’t forget the malignant economic sanctions that the U.S. government  has long imposed and enforced against the Venezuelan people, with the aim of producing mass starvation and illness in the hope that the Venezuelan citizenry would oust Maduro from power through a violent and deadly revolution. At the risk of belaboring the obvious, abusing people in that way does not show any concern for their well-being. Quite the opposite.

The U.S. government’s sanctions strategy against the Venezuelan people worked brilliantly, but only partly. It succeeded in bringing economic catastrophe to the nation, especially in combination with Chavista socialism. That caused some 8 million Venezuelans to flee the country in a desperate effort to save their lives. But it failed to oust Maduro from power.

When many of those millions of refugees came to the United States, U.S. officials treated them with disdain. Accusing them of being tattooed gang members or invaders, U.S. officials engaged in a massive deportation campaign to force these “bad people” back into Venezuela, knowing that they faced death by starvation or illness. Or they sent them to El Salvador for indefinite incarceration and torture, possibly even death.

As we have seen, the U.S. military escapades in Venezuela had nothing to do with the well-being of the Venezuelan people, who are considered to be nothing more than scum. After all, who gives a hoot for the 100 people who were killed in the effort to kidnap Maduro? Certainly not any U.S. officials. The deadly military adventurism had everything to do with power — that is, establishing a compliant, obedient regime in Venezuela that would follow Trump’s orders, especially regarding the extraction of Venezuelan oil by U.S. oil companies.

It’s no different with Iran. U.S. officials have never shown any concern for the well-being of the Iranian people. It’s quite the opposite, going all the way back to 1953. That was when the CIA engineered a coup that destroyed Iran’s experiment with democracy by ousting the democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, from power and replacing him with the brutal, unelected, tyrannical regime of the Shah of Iran.

The reason for that CIA regime-change operation? You guessed it! Oil! Mossadegh, like the Chavista regime in Venezuela, had decided to nationalize Iranian oil, which had a big negative impact on British petroleum interests. The Brits succeeded in getting the CIA to do their dirty work for them with the coup, which left some 200-300 Iranians dead. With the Shah, the Brits got their Iranian oil back.

From 1953-1979, the Iranian people were made to suffer under the brutal, U.S.-supported tyranny of the Shah. There was certainly no concern for the well-being of the Iranian people during that time. What mattered was that the U.S. government had an obedient, loyal, and compliant puppet in charge of the Iranian regime.

In 1979, the Iranian people had had enough. Much to the anger and chagrin of U.S. officials, who have never forgiven them, the Iranian people revolted against the U.S.-supported brutal tyranny of the Shah. Unfortunately, however, they were unable to restore their democratic system that the CIA had destroyed back in 1953. Their revolution ended up installing a brutal and tyrannical theological regime into power, one that was fiercely opposed to the U.S. Empire and, like the Venezuelan Chavista regime, absolutely refused to kowtow to the U.S. Empire.

That independence and recalcitrance motivated U.S officials to impose and enforce brutal economic sanctions against the Iranian people, which were no different in principles from the sanctions that the Empire imposed and enforced against the Venezuelan people. Again, the objective was the same: produce massive economic suffering among the citizenry that would hopefully bring economic impoverishment or even death by starvation or illness in the hope that Iranians would bring about a regime change.

That’s what’s going on in Iran today. After decades of economic suffering from U.S. sanctions and Iran’s centrally managed economy and after decades of theological tyranny, the Iranian people are taking to the streets in massive protests that are threatening the Iranian dictatorship with overthrow. Trump and the U.S. national-security establishment obviously sense that the Iranian regime might be in danger of falling, which is why they are ramping up their war machine in an effort to help make that happen. But make no mistake about it: In my opinion, this not about bringing freedom, democracy, prosperity, or well-being to the Iranian people. This is about installing another U.S. puppet regime into power, one that will obey the orders of the U.S. Empire, especially by welcoming U.S. oil interests, just like in Venezuela.