By James J. Devine
Senator Lindsey Graham, that silver-tongued harbinger of perpetual conflict, stood before the microphones last Friday like a man possessed by the ghosts of wars past and hungry for wars future.
His prescription for America’s wounded pride? More bombs. His antidote to the festering wound of Afghanistan? Incinerate Tehran.
With the zeal of a carnival barker selling salvation through Armageddon, Graham declared that only by “helping Israel finish the job” against Iran’s nuclear program could America “reset its position in the world.”
The logic—if one dares call it that—is a snake swallowing its own tail: We must burn villages to save them.
The Ghost of Deals Betrayed
But let us be clear-eyed, as the hour demands: this fever dream did not emerge from vacuum.
It is the poisoned fruit of a tree uprooted in 2018, when Donald Trump tore apart the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the nuclear deal painstakingly forged by Obama, Kerry, and a coalition of nations.
That agreement had shackled Iran’s enrichment, capped its stockpiles, and subjected its facilities to the most intrusive inspections ever devised. It worked—until Trump, brandishing the phrase “worst deal ever,” reduced it to confetti for domestic applause.
The consequences unfolded like a slow-motion detonation:
- Iran’s Revenge: Freed from constraints, Tehran ramped up enrichment to 60%, then 84%, then hovered at the threshold of weapons-grade uranium—a sprint enabled solely by the vacuum Trump created.
- Diplomacy’s Funeral: Negotiations collapsed. European allies scrambled to salvage the corpse, but U.S. sanctions strangled Iran’s economy, empowering hardliners who spat on moderation.
- The March to War: Today, Graham seizes this manufactured chaos as casus belli. Ignoring that Iran’s breakout time shortened from one year to mere months post-JCPOA, he peddles war as redemption.
Putin’s Shadow and the Nuclear Bazaar
And looming over this madness—always looming—is Vladimir Putin. Russia, Iran’s longtime enabler, has long fed Tehran’s ambitions:
- Arms and Armor: Since 2001, Putin defied U.S. pressure to sell Iran S-300 missiles, tanks, and fighter jets, citing “economic reasons” and Iran’s “right to self-defense.”
- Nuclear Complicity: Russia built Bushehr’s reactor and trained Iranian engineers, all while the IAEA shrugged—a partnership that continues under the thin veil of civilian energy.
- The Ultimate Trade: Now, as Russia bleeds in Ukraine, sustained by Iranian drones raining fire on Kyiv, a darker bargain emerges. What stops Putin, cornered and vengeful, from trading ICBMs or warhead designs for mountains of Shahed drones? The axis tightens: Tehran fuels Moscow’s war; Moscow fuels Tehran’s apocalypse.
“What would be provocative and irresponsible,” Graham thundered, “is to allow [Iran’s] program to continue.” Yet he is silent on the provocation his own party unleashed—the match tossed into the tinderbox.
McCormick’s Howl in the Wilderness
Enter Lisa McCormick, the progressive Democrat whose voice cuts through the din like a switchblade. They ignored her when she took on disgraced former US Senator Bob Menendez.
They are ignoring her now. Where Graham sees redemption in rubble, she sees a feedback loop of imperial dementia:
“Starting another war to ‘fix’ Afghanistan is like drowning to cure thirst! Trump handed Iran the keys to the bomb factory when he torched the JCPOA. Now Graham wants to burn down the whole neighborhood to kill a rat. And Putin? He’s the arsonist selling gasoline to both sides while his own house burns.”
McCormick’s indictment is unsparing: this is not policy but pathology—a refusal to confront the truth that Trump’s withdrawal made this crisis inevitable. The JCPOA wasn’t perfect, but it was a dam holding back the flood. Now Graham demands we unleash the deluge and call it justice .
The Clock Ticks Toward Midnight
So here we stand on June 15, 2025. Israel’s bombs have already fallen on Iranian soil. Putin’s engineers whisper in Bushehr’s control rooms. And Lindsey Graham, that polished prophet of perpetual war, stood with the serenity of a man who’ll never smell cordite on his own doorstep, and promised that this war will cleanse the sins of the last.
But let it be said plainly: Trump lit this fuse. His vanity obliterated the barriers restraining Iran. His isolationism gifted Putin the opening to arm a theocracy that supplies the drones he uses against Ukraine.
Trump’s vanity birthed this crisis. The JCPOA dam held back the flood. Now, Graham demands we drown the world and call it justice.
Graham, that choirboy of carnage who appeared with Cory Booker as a character witness in the criminal trial of Gold Bar Bob Menendez, sings the hymn of escalation—a hymn that could end in nuclear fire or regional inferno.
“I continue to stand with Israel. I continue to stand for peace in the region,” said Booker, who seemed to miss the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu, fresh off his butchery in Gaza, decided to start bombing Iran with weapons made in America.
It’s one thing to be with America and Israel, but the question is whether he stands with Trump and Netanyahu.
In the words of a dead doctor of journalism: When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Well, Trump and Netanyahu are the pros who are running the show now. And the only thing they’re building is a big, beautiful tomb.
Listen to the sound as gears keep grinding the Doomsday Clock toward midnight. This is the price of shattered promises, genuine incompetence in power, and the abdication of responsibility of America’s citizenry. This is the world as it is. June 15, 2025.