January 29, 2026
Vladimir Lenin observed that the fastest way to crush a nation was to debauch its currency. His famous quote was made in reference to Germany’s floundering Weimar Republic, but it is just as appropriate to today’s besieged Iran.
Right now, a US fleet is steaming toward Iran, led by the powerful aircraft carrier ‘Abraham Lincoln’. Scores of US bases in the Mideast are on high alert. The US treasury wages war on Iran’s demolished currency.
I went to sea aboard the ‘Lincoln’ CVN 72 in 1994. As a former member of the US Army, I was a bit skeptical about the military efficiency of the US Navy, but once at sea I was hugely impressed by the efficiency, skill and esprit du corps of the Navy. This even though I had to sleep for many nights underneath the extremely noisy catapults that operated around the clock.
The Navy had turned 5,000 unruly teenage men and women into serious, efficient grown-ups who ran the ‘Lincoln’ like a Swiss watch. I was most impressed.
During the Vietnam War, I had tried to enlist as a naval officer but was brusquely turned down because of my poor eyesight. That’s how this would-be Lord Nelson ended up in the US army.
The ‘Lincoln’ now awaits orders from a ‘no new wars president’ to attack Iran. Such a mass attack has been in the works for decades. I learned that the US Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force planned at least 3,000 initial air attacks on Iran, plus heavy air and missile assaults from Israel, which is closely integrated with US Mideast operations. Key targets would include Iran’s obsolete air force and navy, all ports, telecommunications, air defense systems, airports, oil and gas installation, Revolutionary Guards, Government HQ, offices of the Supreme Leader, Intelligence and police HQ, and attacks by anti-government forces in other restive ethnic parts of Iran stirred up by CIA agents and the US dominated parts of the internet.
As a prelude, the current waves of riots across Iran have been artfully manipulated by CIA which has learned a lot of useful subversion techniques over the past seventy years. Meanwhile, the US has been hard at work since the 1979 revolution that overthrew the opera bouffe Shah, a puppet of Washington, trying to undermine and then overthrow its Islamic government. I’ve interviewed the late Shah’s son who is a faint shadow of his father but pretends to the peacock throne.
The US and its allies have waged a virtual economic and intelligence war against Iran, fearing its nationalist revolution might spread to other of Washington’s Mideast colonies, notably oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.
The powerful Israel lobby in the US has long been beating the war drums against Iran. Israel has repeatedly attacked Iran’s senior officials and its scientists. Iran’s top general, Kassem Suleimani, was assassinated by US drones in 2020. The leadership of Iran’s Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, was similarly assassinated by Israel strikes, vectored into targets by US satellites.
The US and partner Israel want to restore the Pahlavi dynasty to power. Under the late Shah, Iran’s military was run by the Pentagon and its dreaded secret police, Savak, trained by Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad. Israel has never accepted the loss of Iran and is determined to get back in with US help.
Trump, a noted advocate of Israel’s far right, is bitterly anti-Iranian, anti-Muslim and deeply influenced by Israel and its wealthy American supporters. America’s Mideast allies, all military dictatorships or feudal monarchies, are petrified of Iran’s calls to non-corrupt government and shared oil wealth among Muslim nations.
Iran is the last Mideast nation to stand up to Washington’s neo-colonialism. Iraq, and Syria were crushed. Egypt is a US-dominated police state. Lebanon has been smashed. Morocco is a feudal monarchy. Algeria is quiet. Libya is broken to pieces. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf are US protectorates.
In short, the Mideast, except for Iran, has reverted to 19th century colonialism and Israeli expansionism. Iran stands alone in refusing US dictates – but for how long? The mighty US can ravage Iran from the air but even would-be war lord Trump will hesitate to launch any serious ground invasions of this nation of 92.4 million people. ‘America will break its teeth on Iran,’ and Iranian militant told me.’ Maybe, But a very big maybe.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2026
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