Max Blumenthal just said something wild — we're in a war cycle that only ends when someone fully capitulates, and in his view, the U.S. already has.

JD Vance is now saying out loud what Bill Clinton used to scream behind closed doors.

The missile cities everyone called a waste? They held. The fast boats that were supposed to be irrelevant? They kept the Strait closed. Iran had more leverage than anyone wanted to admit.

Max's investigation ties Butler directly to Israeli intelligence — basically manufacturing the Iran threat narrative that pulled Trump into this.

Trump isn't physically scared of Netanyahu. He's politically scared. That's the difference.

And that fear might've just driven what Max is calling the worst U.S. military defeat since the Civil War.

Wild take. But it tracks if you've been watching the moves.