Israel has bombed Iran. Iran has returned fire. And now the dogs of war are barking with bloodlust across cable news, social media, and the marble halls of Washington. And as always, the D.C. war machine — funded by your tax dollars and fueled by bipartisan idiocy — is poised to plunge the United States headlong into yet another Middle Eastern bloodbath.

Let me say this with no hedging and no apologies: America has no business backing either side in the Israel-Iran conflict. None. Not militarily. Not financially. Not diplomatically. Period.

Neither Israel nor Iran is the 51st state. Neither is entitled to our treasure, our weapons, or — God forbid — the lives of our sons and daughters. The U.S. Constitution, that sacred compact we pretend to honor, grants no authority to the president — not one syllable — to commit this country to war in the Middle East without a formal declaration by Congress. Yet, presidents from both parties have trampled that requirement underfoot, preferring to act as imperial Caesars rather than constitutional executives.

And now, as missiles fly between Jerusalem and Tehran, the neocon chorus is rising again demanding more aid, more weapons, more involvement. And inevitably, more dead Americans.

Let’s be clear: The Founders of our Republic warned us against this very entanglement. George Washington, in his Farewell Address, condemned “permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” Thomas Jefferson wrote of the need for “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.” And yet here we are, shackled to a foreign power whose interests are increasingly incompatible with our own, and whose endless conflicts threaten to spark a global inferno.

Israel may be an ally, yes — but it is not beyond reproach, and it is not our ward. Its bombing campaign against Iranian targets, regardless of justification, does not obligate the United States to lift a finger — much less fire a missile or mobilize a carrier group. And Iran, whose theocratic regime is openly hostile to Western values, is no friend of liberty either. But two wrongs do not make a casus belli.

What’s at stake here isn’t merely bad policy — it’s constitutional treason. The War Powers clause of the Constitution is unambiguous: Only Congress can declare war. Not Joe Biden. Not Donald Trump. Not the State Department. Not Netanyahu. Not a cabal of AIPAC-funded lobbyists who treat Capitol Hill like their private playground. And yet, here we go again — threats of “decisive action,” “retaliatory strikes,” and “support for our allies” echo from the mouths of senators who wouldn’t recognize Article I, Section 8 if it was stapled to their forehead.

Let me spell it out: If a single American missile is fired in defense of Israel, or in retaliation against Iran, without a formal congressional declaration of war, it is unconstitutional. Full stop.And every member of Congress who allows it to happen is complicit in the betrayal of our founding charter.

But beyond the legal argument lies a darker truth — one we cannot ignore: This entire conflict, and our involvement in it, is designed to drag the United States into another war in the Middle East. And not just another limited police action — a war that risks metastasizing into a global cataclysm. A war that pits nuclear powers and their proxies against one another in a region already soaked in blood. A war that could spark World War III.

And for what? For territory? For ideology? For oil? Or is it for the same reason we’ve been at war for decades now: to serve the military-industrial complex, to satisfy the bloodlust of neocon warmongers, and to line the pockets of the defense contractors who own Washington like a dog on a leash?

Let’s not forget: The same voices who are now calling for strikes against Iran were the ones who brought us Iraq. The same pundits who cry “terrorist state” at Tehran are the ones who cheered the destruction of Libya. The same power brokers who chant “stand with Israel” now will be the same ones shipping body bags home next month.

And if you dare question it, if you dare suggest that America should not bankrupt itself or bleed itself out for someone else’s war, you’re labeled unpatriotic. Isolationist. Anti-Semitic. A traitor.

No, the real traitors are the ones who treat our Constitution like toilet paper and our soldiers like cannon fodder; the real traitors are the politicians who wave the American flag while selling us into foreign bondage; the real traitors are the media mouthpieces who lie us into war and then vanish when the coffins come home.

Let me be crystal clear: Supporting Israel’s right to exist does not mean blindly endorsing every missile they launch. Opposing Iran’s regime does not mean launching World War III. And being a patriot means putting America first — not Israel, not Iran, not any foreign power.

This isn’t anti-Israel. This is pro-Constitution. This is pro-America. This is pro-peace.

Let Israel and Iran settle their scores. Let their bombs fall on each other, not on us. Let their ideologies clash, but let us not be conscripted into someone else’s holy war. And for God’s sake, let’s stop pretending that one more war will solve what decades of war have already made worse.

If we truly want to honor the Constitution, if we truly want to preserve the Republic, if we truly want to keep faith with the Founders, then we must demand an end to this madness. No more foreign entanglements, no more unconstitutional wars, and no more American blood spilled on foreign sand.

The time for choosing is now. Congress must reassert its exclusive war power, the American people must reject the siren song of foreign crusades, and the president — whoever he is — must be forced to obey the supreme law of the land.

If not, we will wake up one morning not only at war with Iran, but in a war that consumes the globe — and buries the last remnants of American liberty beneath the rubble of another empire’s ruin.

Let this be our line in the sand.