U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday added to the reasons the Trump administration has given for its bombing campaign in Iran with the startling admission that the United States was pressured into striking because an imminent attack by Israel alone would have triggered retaliation against the U.S. forces in the region.
Rubio said: “The first reason is that it was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone — the United States or Israel or anyone — they were going to respond and respond against the United States. The orders had been delegated down to the field commanders, it was automatic and in fact it beared to be true.”
Rubio’s reasoning for the latter claim was that “within an hour after the initial attack on the leadership compound, the missile forces in the south, and in the north for that matter, had already been activated to launch.”
Rubio’s claim — that Israel’s attack, undertaken with CIA assistance, compelled the U.S. to join the attacks — was met by the opposition as a case of the tail wagging the dog, with the Secretary saying that aggression by Israel left the U.S. no choice, forcing its hand.
Sharing Rubio’s answers, U.S. Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) emphasized that the Secretary seemed to confirm there was no imminent threat to the U.S., only potential retaliatory attacks triggered by Israel’s actions.
McGovern wrote: “Secretary Rubio’s remarks are astonishing. There was no imminent threat—instead Netanyahu was about to attack Iran, forcing our hand by putting U.S. troops at risk of retaliation. And Trump was complicit—he went along with it all…”
Secretary Rubio’s remarks are astonishing. There was no imminent threat—instead Netanyahu was about to attack Iran, forcing our hand by putting U.S. troops at risk of retaliation. And Trump was complicit—he went along with it all, starting a new forever war that nobody voted for. https://t.co/dna0L0qPs6
— Rep. Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) March 3, 2026
Interviewed on MSNow, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) also addressed the ‘wag the dog’ scenario Rubio described with astonishment, saying of the U.S.’s purported subservience to Israel: “I guess we’re not a world power anymore?”
Gallego cited his own experience as a war veteran and his frustration that those making decisions entered into this conflict “on somebody else’s word. Nobody decided to say ‘hey what is in the best interests of the men and women of my country first?’”
Gallego posits that it would have been easy for the dog — in this case, the U.S. — to wag the tail that is Israel, by saying to Benjamin Netanyahu: “Don’t go to war. If you’re going to go to war, we’re not going to give you the intelligence, we’re not going to give you the support, we’re not going to give you the bombs.” Instead, Gallego said, the Trump administration said, “you know what, we’re going to go with you.”
Gallego: I remember Netanyahu coming to testify in congress and advocating for us to invade Iraq, saying it was going to be a great result for the Middle East. I’m seeing it again now. Young American men and women are dying because of these idiots.
These idiots that are just… pic.twitter.com/7k6LpkXIjk
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 3, 2026
Gallego also cited Netanyahu’s salesmanship while visiting Congress before the Iraq invasion during the George W. Bush presidency, an invasion that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars without achieving regional stabilization — its major goal. Notably that invasion, like this one, killed the leader of the despised regime before devolving into a quagmire.