COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND THE IRAN WAR - Richard Seymour digs into the weeds of chaos.

21st March 2026

I must admit that prior to this conflict erupting I put myself in the place of the Russian and Chinese military leadership and contemplated whether or not the Great Satan would be so stupid as to get involved in an attack on Iran - it would suck its blood. After three weeks or so the war is not going well for the USA. If Trump retreats (the sensible thing to do) he will lose. If he trys to escalate, which looks likely, he will lose bigly. The tragedy is that such a loss will raise the possibility of Israel using nuclear weapons against Iran significantly.


'A striking datum of this war is how few attempts have been made at selling it, rhetorically dignifying it, morally arming it or situating it in some context of shared Western interests. While the belligerati rehearse exhausted arguments about armed liberation, Pete Hegseth waxes lyrical about ‘death and destruction from the sky all day long’; while they talk de-escalation, Trump demands ‘UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER’; where they seek intelligibility, the administration offers barefaced lies, evasions, contradictions and grandstanding. Of course, since the Gaza genocide, in which Washington spearheaded a global coalition behind a far-right extermination campaign while liberal apologists cultivated a studied obliviousness, the belligerati have refined their capacity for cognitive dissonance. But the situation has moved on. They may once, two decades ago, have been useful to a violently adventurist, rightist administration going to war – but no more. The right no longer caters to, nor needs, its liberal outriders. They hang on out of habit.'




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