Simple Smart Seminar
  • Stock
  • Investing
  • Politics
  • Tech News
  • Editor’s Pick
Editor's PickInvesting

Secret Deals, Endless Wars: The America First Betrayal in Iran?

by June 13, 2025
June 13, 2025 0 comment

Brandan P. Buck

trump inauguration

Israel’s airstrikes on Iran and US involvement shatter the illusion that America First guides President Trump’s Middle East policy. The hijacking of “America First” for hawkish goals is clear as Trump treads the same failed interventionist path in the Middle East. Beyond policy, these attempts to co-opt the legacy of America First for the sake of the status quo discard key insights once associated with the label. The America Firsters of old would be appalled at the US government’s continued entanglement with a foreign power, one that undermines liberty at home, hazards further involvement, empowers secret diplomacy, and undermines American sovereignty.

Yesteryear’s America First understood the impact of American involvement in foreign wars on our liberties, and picking sides in foreign quarrels undermined domestic tranquility. In recent days and weeks, supporters of America’s cheek-to-jowl relationship with Israel have willfully, even gleefully, transferred foreign political dynamics onto their domestic political opponents. Supporters of this conflation have gone as far as to resurrect the myth of an enemy fifth column in our midst, accusing their fellow Americans of disloyalty for opposing their preferred foreign policy. The America Firsters, once targets of such venomous behavior, would likely be appalled to see those who claim its mantle engaging in the same behavior, especially to the benefit of a foreign power.

The America Firsters of old understood the perils of incremental involvement in other people’s wars. Looking back at World War I, America Firsters understood that foreign entanglements fed on themselves, leading policymakers into the perils of sunk-cost thinking. This observation, born of two world wars and sustained through the smaller-scale entanglements of the Cold War, was once a commonly held conservative position in American foreign affairs. This once foundational insight appears lost on many who claim the mantle of America First, openly mocking concerns about further involvement in the latest Middle East crisis.

The America First movement of the interwar period recognized the pernicious nature of an empowered executive branch and secret diplomacy. On the eve of World War II, they recoiled at a Congress that willfully ceded its oversight functions and authorities to an expanded executive. Citing the machinations of the Great War, they criticized the Old World’s penchant for secret and duplicitous diplomacy. Indeed, the movement’s raison d’être was to oppose the power of an executive to make secret deals predicated upon often ambiguously defined alliances. Today, those who claim to speak for an America First foreign policy cheer at the idea that the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feigned diplomacy while preparing for war.

Finally, America First understood that the United States was a distinct place with its own history, institutions, and destiny that demanded a foreign policy independent of foreign entanglements. While that embrace of particularism had a nativist and illiberal dark side, it also served as a mechanism of restraint, one that rejected the burdens of empire abroad. Today, those who have subverted the America First label now justify continued subsidy and entanglement with Israeli foreign policy, claiming that its politics align with our “civilizational values” or “shared interests.” 

The idea that the United States ought to continue to write diplomatic, moral, and fiscal blank checks to a client state on the other side of the world, all the while incurring the risk of war, would seem utterly appalling to those who coined the phrase America First.

If those who claim to serve America’s interests plunge the United States into a deeper involvement in Israel’s war on Iran, they should, at the least, relinquish the label. For, despite their claims otherwise, such actions and ideologies would, in fact, put America last.

0 comment
0
FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
previous post
Friday Feature: Innovation School
next post
Inside Israel’s secret war in Iran: Mossad commandos, hidden drones and the strike that stunned Tehran

You may also like

Reforming Labor Union Laws

July 29, 2025

Is AI a Horse or a Zebra When...

July 28, 2025

The AI Action Plan: Taking AI Innovation Seriously

July 28, 2025

College Student Aid Theft

July 28, 2025

Can the White House Denaturalize Domestic Opponents?

July 25, 2025

An Updated Interview with George Selgin on Free...

July 25, 2025

Inflation Can Increase Capital Gains Tax Rate to...

July 25, 2025

Friday Feature: Edefy, “Pod Schooling Made Simple”

July 25, 2025

Yiwu: China’s Free-Market City

July 25, 2025

Chart Mania – 23 ATR Move in QQQ...

July 25, 2025

    Fill Out & Get More Relevant News


    Stay ahead of the market and unlock exclusive trading insights & timely news. We value your privacy - your information is secure, and you can unsubscribe anytime. Gain an edge with hand-picked trading opportunities, stay informed with market-moving updates, and learn from expert tips & strategies.

    Recent Posts

    • Chart Mania – 23 ATR Move in QQQ – Metals Lead 2025 – XLV Oversold – XLU Breakout – ITB Moment of Truth

      July 25, 2025
    • S&P 500 Breaking Out Again: What This Means for Your Portfolio

      July 24, 2025
    • Momentum Leaders Are Rotating — Here’s How to Find Them

      July 24, 2025
    • Is META Breaking Out or Breaking Down?

      July 23, 2025
    • A Wild Ride For the History Books: 2025 Mid-Year Recap

      July 23, 2025
    • Tech Taps the Brakes, Homebuilders Hit the Gas: See the Rotation on StockCharts Today

      July 22, 2025
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Copyright © 2025 simplesmartseminar.com | All Rights Reserved

    Simple Smart Seminar
    • Stock
    • Investing
    • Politics
    • Tech News
    • Editor’s Pick