 Biden says the U.S. does not seek conflict in the Middle East while actively dropping bombs there. The Biden administration has begun its latest bombing campaign in the Middle East, reportedly dropping over 125 munitions on more than 85 Iranian and Shia militia targets in Iraq and Syria on Friday. The mainstream press have been falling all over themselves to describe the strikes as retaliatory in nature, framing it as a provoked response to a drone attack which killed three U.S. troops at a base on the border of Jordan and Syria. Which is a bit odd, given that this supposed retaliation is being directed at a nation which the U.S. government itself admits is not known to have been involved in said drone attack at all. While U.S. Central Command says the strikes targeted Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Cuds Force and affiliated militia groups, the U.S. has already openly admitted that it has no evidence Iran was behind the drone attack. On Monday Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh admitted that there was no information showing that Iran had actually ordered or orchestrated the attack, saying only that Iran bears responsibility for the strike because it has been supporting such groups in the region. This position was later confirmed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and by President Biden himself. Asked by the press on Thursday how much Iran knew in advance about the drone attack by Iraqi militants, Austin said, we don't know, but it really doesn't matter because Iran sponsors those groups. Austin was almost telling the truth. Yes, it's true the U.S. has no knowledge of any Iranian involvement in the deaths of those three U.S. troops, and yes it is true that it doesn't matter to the U.S. whether it did or didn't. But the real reason it doesn't matter has nothing to do with Iran's sponsoring militia groups which align with its interests. In reality, it really doesn't matter whether Iran was behind the attacks because Iran is the most powerful non-U.S. aligned state in the Middle East, and for that reason the U.S. has spent generations seizing every opportunity to harm and subvert it and its interests in the region. This is just one more opportunity for the U.S. Empire to do what it always does in the Middle East. It is a bit odd then that the U.S. President announced the beginning of this new series of airstrikes with a statement which claims, the United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. Conflict in the Middle East is what the U.S. Empire does. The entire U.S. Empire is held together by endless conflict, especially in resource-rich regions where strategic control is necessary to retain planetary hegemony. The U.S. Empire is conflict. Saying the U.S. does not seek conflict in the Middle East is like saying the Kardashians do not seek attention. It's like saying Jeff Bezos doesn't seek money. It's like saying the Hamburgler doesn't seek hamburgers. It's kind of their thing. To make such a ridiculous claim while actively reigning military explosives upon the Middle East, in retaliation for an attack which the people you're bombing didn't even commit, is just extra icing on the cake of ridiculousness. From Gaza to Iraq to Syria to Iran to Yemen, conflict in the Middle East is the U.S. Empire's bread and butter. The most murderous power structure on the planet continually paints itself as a poor little victim of any backlash against its abuses and as an innocent passive witness to the suffering it orchestrates. But nobody who's involved in that many acts of violence has ever been interested in peace.