Senator Rips Trump’s ‘Insane’ Plan For Iran Escalation, As Pentagon Transport Planes Land In Israel

There are continuing signs that President Trump may be ready to pull the trigger on ordering another major attack against Iran, though the American public might be wondering what the endgame or ‘mission accomplished’ moment might be – which has remained undefined and elusive after seven full months.

First, Israel’s national KAN News reported late Thursday that ten US Air Force transport planes arrived at airbases in southern Israel, part of a surge in Pentagon equipment transfers across the region. KAN said this is preparation for a “short, focused war with Iran” – with the aircraft likely stocked with air defense systems.

Confirmation of the airlifts arriving in Israel came a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that “The U.S. military is sending an additional Patriot system to Israel from Texas to beef up its missile defenses in the country, according to flight-tracking data and two officials with knowledge of the movement.”

“U.S. forces in the region have been restocking their munitions, and bomber aircraft and jet fighters are preparing for strikes, some of the officials said,” the report indicated. “An additional aircraft-carrier strike group and Marine expeditionary unit are also poised to join an armada of roughly 20 other warships operating in the Middle East next month, although some ships could rotate out.”

All of this build-up looks to be doing practically nothing to deter the Iranians from what are now daily attacks on internatonal shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. There have been at least a half-dozen tanker attacks, mine hits, or incidents resulting in serious damage in the strait this week alone. And another Friday:

IRAN CLAIMS OIL SUPERTANKER HIT MINE FRIDAY IN HOMRUZ: FARS

Next, the US has reportedly been warning Gulf allies of a new round of strikes on Iran to come. They must brace themselves for the inevitable Iranian retaliation, which it seems the Pentagon is powerless to stop.

Also, on Thursday top US admirals briefed the Commander-in-Chief on ‘options’ for a renewed war. This saw CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper at the White House, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.

Will US regional allies cooperate and sign on to whatever next escalation phase might come?

But the meeting is said to have heavily focused on the status of the US Navy mission in the Strait of Hormuz, where record levels of wartime oil transit is making its way out. The admin might be content to keep this uneasy status quo sitution going, which has relied heavily on ‘dark’ transits and smaller ship-to-ship transfers under the ‘protection’ of the US Navy. The meeting also included the presence of Vice President JD Vance, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles – as reported in Axios.

At a moment the Iranians have not backed off their conditions for ending the war, one influential diplomat says that there needs to be a longer ‘time out’ and that some kind of deal could be ‘very close’ (though we’ve heard all of this many times before). Per Axios:

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack told CNN on Thursday that the U.S. and Iran are “very close” to a deal to deescalate tensions.

“I think we’re very close to finally getting to a place where we can say, ‘Let’s just have a timeout,’” he said. “We’re not going to have an overall solution immediately, but we can allow the region to find its own pace.”

There’s of late been independent and local reporting of limited US attacks against the southern Iranian coast, reportedly against rocket launch and other Iranian ‘defensive’ sites – but little can be proven or conformed amid the fog of war and competing claims.

Another sign that things could soon rapidly escalate – likely after the midterm elections (at least according to Trump’s latest words) – is that Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy has late this week revealed he’s been briefed on the Trump administration’s plans to resume military operations after the November 3 vote in the US.

Notably, he warned that the plan is “insane” as it “will lead to devastating escalation and the likely destruction of our commitment to the rule of law.” 

Murphy highlighted recent reports potential US strikes on Iranian civilian infrastructure, in an effort to sow societal breakdown and collapse in the country, but did not elaborate with details.

“The plan that they have developed will lead, in my view, to a prolonged escalation of this war that will be devastating for our security interests,” he added in his remarks, and further warned of American service members being put at risk.

The Senator further hit out at the White House for lack of Congressional authorization for the war. “Every first year law student could tell you that this war is illegal” in the domestic sense, Murphy asserted. “But it is also clearly in contravention of international law and commitments that we have made to the rule of law to deliberately target civilians and to use the harm or potential harm of civilians as leverage in war.”

This “cycle of escalation” – as he called it, has already been on display throughout the summer, given each new US military action has served to lead to each new round of escalation, also as America’s Gulf allies get pummeled with Iranian missiles and drones each time.