Original 2005 article: America Does Not Go Abroad in Search of Monsters to Destroy
John Quincy Adams said we don’t go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. But he didn’t live in the age of 24/7 drone feeds, think tank op-eds, or weaponized hashtags.
In 2025, we still claim the moral high ground. We just occupy it from 30,000 feet with a payload attached.
The Monster Machine
We’re told Iran is the monster. Again. Still. Always. A regime of death cult clerics and proxy militias. They chant "Death to America," and we treat it like a real-time threat rather than ritual political theater—as if our own airwaves don’t echo just as loud with "Death to Iran" in every studio-scripted justification for targeted strikes.
But here’s the thing: America doesn’t destroy monsters anymore. We manage them. We nurture them. We fund their opposition, poke their pride, kill a general, sanction their insulin, then act shocked when they act cornered.
Monsters are useful. They justify budgets. They drive headlines. They let presidents act unilaterally. And sometimes, when elections loom or poll numbers dip, they give us the perfect excuse to bomb an old ex for closure.
Trump’s Strike: Surgical or Symbolic?
In June 2025, Trump dropped a payload on Iranian nuclear infrastructure. Was it effective? Maybe. Was it legal? Barely. Was it necessary? That depends on whether you're asking a strategist or a speechwriter.
For a movement that ran on "no more endless wars," this looked a lot like relapsing. Targeted, yes. But targeted at a nation we’ve been dying to provoke for decades. It’s like cheating with your ex because technically, you’re not meeting someone new.
Bombing Iran Is the Definition of the Doctrine We Abandoned
We weren’t attacked. We weren’t invaded. We weren’t occupied. We struck because we could.
John Quincy Adams warned us not to go abroad in search of monsters. Not because they don’t exist, but because hunting them turns you into one. The minute you start believing every crisis abroad is your moral obligation to resolve, you stop being a republic and start acting like an empire.
Propaganda Feedback Loops
Iran isn’t innocent. But it also isn’t the cartoon villain our media wants it to be. What if—80% of the terrorism we blame on Iran—Hezbollah here, militias there—was actually the work of CIA, MI6, and Mossad destabilization projects, black ops, and misattributions? We don’t know. But it feels true. And in foreign policy, "feels true" gets you further than facts.
We bomb shadowy networks we can’t define. We retaliate against regimes we secretly fund the opposition to. And when it all goes sideways? We roll out the same baby-in-the-rubble optics we used in 1990, 2001, and 2011.
But something’s changed. The American public doesn’t flinch anymore. We’ve seen too many staged photos, too many tear-streaked press conferences, too many toddlers held up as shields. We don’t cry. We click away.
"Empathy has been reverse-engineered into a weapon."
We used to send troops. Now we send storylines. Humanitarian war, feminist drones, climate justice strikes. Every bomb dropped comes with a moral TED Talk.
The Soft Empire
We don’t plant flags. We plant frameworks. USAID, IMF, NGOs, and culture industries do the occupying now. Our troops are influencers, consultants, startup missionaries. We don’t enforce democracy; we template it. Then we punish deviations with sanctions or sabotage.
And when countries resist our model, we brand them as rogue. As backward. As monsters.
MAGA’s Unspoken Bargain
Let’s be honest. MAGA didn’t elect Trump because he was a foreign policy savant. They elected him because he wasn’t the system. Because he promised no more foreign adventures, no more regime change fantasies, no more Davos Doctrine.
So what does it mean when even he folds to the monster doctrine? When he breaks his own no-new-wars rule to strike an old enemy?
It means even the outsider has gone native. Even the wrecking ball gets swallowed by the machine.
Final Thought
We’re not liberating anyone anymore. We’re just playing God in the shadows, balancing chaos with control. The monsters we destroy are the ones we designed to justify our presence. The empire doesn’t wear boots anymore. It wears AirPods.
And it never stopped searching. It just got better at finding.
APPENDIX: War Powers, Lies, and Legal Fictions
Checks and Balances That Mostly Don’t
War Powers Resolution (1973): Requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying military force. Limits engagement to 60 days without Congressional authorization. Routinely ignored.
Congressional Oversight: In theory, Congress controls the purse strings. In practice, presidents act first and dare Congress to cut military funding retroactively. They never do.
Fact Check: True
Presidents from Reagan to Obama have authorized unilateral strikes without Congressional approval.
Trump ordered the assassination of Soleimani in 2020 without prior authorization, citing imminent threats.
Biden bombed Syria in 2021 and again in 2023 without full Congressional sign-off.
Fact Check: False
"Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism" — based on U.S. definitions that exclude Saudi Arabia and Israel’s own covert ops.
"U.S. strikes are always precise and minimize civilian casualties" — refuted by multiple independent investigations (e.g. Afghanistan drone strike in 2021 killed aid workers).
Legal Gray Area (aka Business as Usual)
Article II of the Constitution grants the president Commander-in-Chief powers, but not the right to declare war. That power lies with Congress.
The AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force) from 2001 has been stretched to cover conflicts far beyond its original target (Al-Qaeda).
Historical Precedents for Going Rogue
Reagan (1986): Bombed Libya after a Berlin disco bombing.
Clinton (1998): Operation Infinite Reach — missile strikes on Sudan and Afghanistan.
Bush (2001-2003): Global War on Terror, Iraq invasion under flimsy WMD claims.
Obama (2011): Libya intervention without Congressional approval.
Trump (2020): Soleimani airstrike in Baghdad.
Trump 47 (2025): Iran nuclear site strike with minimal justification.
FAQ
Q: Can the president bomb another country without Congress?
A: Legally questionable. Politically normalized.
Q: Why doesn’t Congress stop it?
A: Because war is bipartisan, and opposing it sounds soft.
Q: Isn’t bombing Iran an act of war?
A: Functionally, yes. Legally, it gets reframed as “self-defense” or “containment.”
Q: Has Trump betrayed the anti-war promise of MAGA?
A: Yes. But he’ll sell it as a one-off correction, not a reentry into interventionism.
Q: What about global norms and the UN?
A: The U.S. sets the norms and ignores the UN when inconvenient.
Glossary
AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force): Congressional resolution passed post-9/11 that presidents use as legal fig leaf for global military action.
Surgical Strike: Military euphemism for bombing something in a way that sounds morally clean.
Blowback: Unintended consequences of foreign intervention, usually involving revenge.
Empire of Bases: Coined by Chalmers Johnson. The U.S. has ~750 overseas military installations.
R2P (Responsibility to Protect): Humanitarian doctrine used to justify military intervention.
Proxy War: A war instigated by a major power that does not itself become involved.
Soft Power: The use of cultural influence, media, and economic pressure to shape global affairs.
Unipolar Moment: Post-Cold War period when the U.S. operated as the sole global superpower.
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