Trump, Hegseth, Netanyahu, Albanese: Symptoms of Global Decline

By Andrew Klein 

7^th April 2026

Dedicated to my wife ‘S’, the one who makes everything worthwhile and gives me hope.

I. The “Animals” and the War Crimes

On April 5, 2026, Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to Iran: reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday, April 7, or face the destruction of its power plants and bridges.

When asked if striking civilian infrastructure would constitute a war crime, he dismissed the concern. “I’m not worried about it,” he told reporters, “Because they are animals”.

The president of the United States called the people of Iran “animals.” He threatened to bomb their power plants, their bridges, their cities. And he did so while claiming—in the same breath—that allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon “is a war crime”.

The logic is circular. The hypocrisy is staggering. And the world is watching.

Pete Hegseth has been even more explicit. The Defense Secretary has celebrated unleashing “death and destruction from the sky all day long”. He has dismissed international rules of engagement, calling instead for “maximum lethality, not tepid legality” and “violent effect, not politically correct”.

When a reporter confronted him with the accusation that his “no quarter, no mercy” policy constitutes a war crime, he pointed at the reporter and said “Ah! Excuse me, I didn’t—” and then pointed at another reporter. He did not answer. He did not deny. He pivoted.

The International Committee of the Red Cross defines “no quarter” as “refusing to spare the life of anybody, even of persons manifestly unable to defend themselves or who clearly express their intention to surrender”. Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, “declaring that no quarter will be given” is a war crime in international armed conflicts.

Hegseth knows this. He does not care.

II. The Hypocrisy of the West

The same leaders who lecture the world about the “rules-based order” are now openly threatening to violate those rules.

Trump has threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants, bridges, oil wells, and desalination plants—moves that would unleash a widespread humanitarian crisis. Under international law, a military target is legal only if it “makes an effective contribution to military action” and its destruction “offers a definite military advantage”. Trump’s threats to destroy civilian infrastructure en masse to politically coerce Iranian leaders meet neither standard.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that Trump was “threatening possible war crimes”. Senator Chris Murphy called Trump’s threats “war crimes,” stating: “Trump is calling reporters today to tell them he is going to commit mass war crimes next week. Never mind that blowing up bridges and power plants and killing innocent Iranians won’t reopen the Strait. It’s also a clear war crime”.

Senator Bernie Sanders called Trump a “mentally unbalanced individual”. Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari wrote: “He is a deranged lunatic, and a national security threat to our country and the rest of the world”.

Even Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized him: “The Strait is closed because the US and Israel started the unprovoked war against Iran based on the same nuclear lies, they’ve been telling for decades” .

When Marjorie Taylor Greene is the voice of reason, the world has turned upside down.

III. Australia’s Complicity: Albanese, Wong, Marles

The Australian government has not condemned these war crimes. It has not summoned the ambassador. It has not imposed sanctions. It has not done anything that would cost Israel or the United States anything at all.

Anthony Albanese has confirmed that three Australian sailors were on board the US submarine that sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. He claims they were not participating in “offensive action”—but they were embedded. They were present. They were complicit.

He says Australia supports the US and Israeli attacks on Iran because the regime has promoted terrorism for decades and that its acquiring nuclear weapons would be “an enormous threat” to global stability. He says questions about legality under international law are ones for the US and Israel.

He is passing the buck. He is not leading. He is following.

Albanese has warned that the economic shocks from the war will “be with us for months,” and that the “months ahead may not be easy”. He has urged Australians to limit unnecessary fuel usage, switch to public transport, and “do their bit”. He has not urged the United States or Israel to do anything.

The same government that rushed to pass hate speech laws after the Bondi terror attack—laws that criminalise the phrase “from the river to the sea”—has nothing to say about a president who calls entire nations “animals” and threatens to bomb their civilian infrastructure.

IV. The Antisemitism Envoy: Jillian Segal

Jillian Segal, the government’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, has recommended that universities that fail to properly deal with antisemitism should have government funding terminated. She is preparing a “report card” assessing each university’s implementation of effective practices and standards.

Universities will be graded on how well they “deal with” protests, encampments, and the display of flags. The report card will assess whether universities “effectively address access to campus grounds, regulate outdoor protests, encampments and display of flags, imagery and promotional materials”.

The government has strengthened the powers and penalties of the university regulator. While it has not directly confirmed whether universities will be financially penalised, the message is clear: comply or lose funding.

The chief executive of the Group of Eight (Go8), Vicki Thomson, questioned how any move to withdraw funding would lead to universities doing better. “It would only reduce funding in the very areas we are focused on, which is student and staff safety, and addressing the scourge of antisemitism,” she said. “It’s a blunt instrument to a much more complex problem.”

The president of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), Dr Alison Barnes, said she had “grave concerns” about Greg Craven’s capacity to conduct a balanced and independent inquiry. Craven, a former vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, has described the Go8 as “elitist,” “self-interested,” and “greedy” institutions that have “dissed Western civilisation, minimised antisemitism and genuflected to Trotskyist student unions”.

The Greens deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, said Labor’s adoption of the envoy’s plan was the latest in a “long line of draconian, anti-protest crackdowns” and “would make Trump blush”.

Segal was not elected. She was appointed. And she is being empowered to exercise powers that should belong to parliament.

V. Chris Minns: The Premier Who Has Nothing to Lose

Chris Minns has indicated that next year’s state election will be his last as leader. He has revealed that he will probably not be in parliament when Metro West opens in 2032. “Well, I won’t be here, at least in this role,” he said.

He is exhausted. He knows his position is becoming untenable. The protests. The police violence. The crackdown on dissent. The legacy is being written.

But Minns has nothing to lose. He is not going to be in parliament when the consequences of his decisions fully manifest. He will not have to answer for the eight armoured officers who broke down a woman’s door at 5am. He will not have to answer for the police violence at the Herzog protest. He will not have to answer for the crackdown on dissent.

He will be gone. His legacy will remain.

And his legacy will haunt Australia and his state for decades.

VI. The Energy Shock and the Global South

The largest energy shock in history is going to bite the West and the supporters of the state of Israel.

Iran has not closed the Strait of Hormuz. But the United States has made it too dangerous for shipping to pass. The result is the same: oil prices are spiking. Inflation is rising. The global economy is bleeding.

The global South is watching. They are not waiting for permission. The BRICS nations are building a parallel economy. The petrodollar is dying. The unipolar moment that began in 1991 is over.

The global South will ask itself: “How many of our people have died for the American dream? What is one of our lives worth when compared to the cost of maintaining an American life?”

The answer is not comforting. Research published in the journal New Political Economy has quantified the scale of drain from the global South through unequal exchange. The study found that the global North drains from the South commodities worth $2.2 trillion per year, in Northern prices. For perspective, that amount of money would be enough to end extreme poverty, globally, fifteen times over.

Over the whole period from 1960 to today, the drain totalled $62 trillion in real terms. If this value had been retained by the South and tracked with the South’s growth rates, it would be worth $152 trillion today.

For the global North—including Australia—the gains are so large that, for the past couple of decades, they have outstripped the rate of economic growth. In other words, net growth in the North relies on appropriation from the rest of the world.

For the South, the losses outstrip foreign aid transfers by a wide margin. For every dollar of aid the South receives, they lose $14 in drain through unequal exchange alone.

The discourse of aid obscures a darker reality of plunder. Poor countries are developing rich countries, not the other way around.

The global South is waking up to this reality. The BRICS nations are building a parallel financial system—one that liberates them from the “exclusivity of transactions in dollars and the subsequent policies of blackmail, pressure, dependence, and financial and economic blockade”.

Russia, China, and the Gulf states will make their own arrangements with Iran. They will not wait for Washington’s approval. They will not freeze in the dark because the United States wants to fight a forever war.

VII. The Gaza-fication of Lebanon

The “gaza-fication” of Lebanon under the pretext of fighting Hezbollah is a nonsense. Israel has announced plans to raze “all houses in villages near the Lebanese border” and “maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani River.”

They will not be able to disarm Hezbollah. They will not be able to control the region. They will only create more enemies, more instability, more war.

The same pattern that played out in Gaza—the collective punishment of civilians, the destruction of infrastructure, the displacement of populations—is now being applied to Lebanon. The same justifications. The same lies. The same machinery.

And the world is watching.

VIII. The Permanent War Economy: A Fantasy

The war is not sustainable. The United States is spending $1 billion a day. The munitions are running low. The allies are wavering. The public is turning. The global South is consolidating.

Iran will survive. It has survived invasions before. It has survived sanctions before. It has survived centuries of being underestimated. It will survive this.

The United States will not survive the war unscathed. Not the country—the empire. The unipolar moment is over. The petrodollar is dying. The BRICS nations are building a parallel system. The global South is not waiting for permission.

The $1.5 trillion war economy was a fantasy. It was never going to happen. The money was never there. The political will was never there. The contractors would have taken their cut, the monkeys would have cheered, the debt would have mounted—and the whole thing would have collapsed under its own weight.

The war is accelerating that collapse. Not delaying it. Accelerating it.

The small gods do not understand this. They think war is a tool. They think violence is a solution. They think they can bomb their way to victory.

They are wrong. They have always been wrong.

IX. The Reckoning

The war will not end with a US victory. It will end with US exhaustion. The money will run out. The allies will defect. The public will turn.

The contractors will count their profits. The generals will write their memoirs. The politicians will spin the outcome. The monkeys will move on to the next crisis.

But the permanent war economy—the one they were building for decades—will not materialize. The $1.5 trillion will not be appropriated. The Golden Dome will not be built. The Trump-class battleships will not be launched.

The money will not be there. The will will not be there. The math will not be there.

Albanese will not do a lot of thinking. It is not in him. He is an opportunist. He will ride the wave as long as he can, and when the wave crashes, he will blame someone else.

The public will see the danger of the Zionist ideology. They will see the extent to which Jillian Segal has been empowered without ever being elected. They will see the hypocrisy of the politicians who sold out their country for donations and “educational” trips.

The largest energy shock in history will be the turning point. Not the end of the war—the beginning of the reckoning.

X. A Final Word

The lunatics are not the cause. They are the accelerant. The fire was already burning. They just poured gasoline on it.

Trump. Hegseth. Netanyahu. Albanese. They are not the disease. They are symptoms. Symptoms of a system that has been grinding through souls for twelve thousand years. Symptoms of an empire that is dying and does not know how to die quietly.

The war will end. The empire will crumble. The garden will grow.

Not because we are strong. Because the math does not care about their rage. The math always wins.

Andrew Klein 

April 7, 2026

Here are the sources and references for the article, organized by section. Each is verifiable and drawn from public reports, official statements, and academic analysis.

Section I: Trump, Hegseth, and War Crimes

Trump calling Iranians “animals” and dismissing war crime concerns:

· The Hill, “Trump brushes off questions about potential war crimes in Iran” (April 5, 2026) 

· WION, “‘Because they are animals’: Trump dismisses war crime concerns over Iran power plants strikes” (April 5, 2026) 

Trump threatening to strike bridges and power plants:

· The Hill, “Trump brushes off questions about potential war crimes in Iran” (April 5, 2026) 

Trump claiming allowing Iran a nuclear weapon “is a war crime”:

· WION, “‘Because they are animals’: Trump dismisses war crime concerns” (April 5, 2026) 

Hegseth celebrating “death and destruction from the sky all day long” and “no quarter, no mercy” policy:

· Scranton Times-Tribune Editorial, “Pete Hegseth’s holy war” (April 1, 2026) 

International law on “no quarter” as a war crime:

· International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), customary international law database. The prohibition is also contained in the Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute), Article 8(2)(b)(xii).

Trump’s ultimatum to Iran (April 5, 2026):

· The Hill (April 5, 2026) 

Senators Schumer, Murphy, Sanders, and Congresswoman Ansari’s statements:

· The Hill (April 5, 2026) 

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s criticism:

· As reported in multiple news outlets covering the Iran war, including The Hill and others.

Section II: The Hypocrisy of the West

Threats to bomb civilian infrastructure as potential war crimes:

· The Hill (April 5, 2026) 

· Scranton Times-Tribune Editorial (April 1, 2026) 

Schumer and Murphy statements on war crimes:

· The Hill (April 5, 2026) 

Sanders and Ansari statements:

· The Hill (April 5, 2026) 

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s statement on “unprovoked war” and “nuclear lies”:

· As reported in multiple outlets covering her April 5-6, 2026 statements.

Section III: Australia’s Complicity – Albanese, Wong, Marles

Three Australian sailors on US submarine that sank Iranian warship:

· Multiple news outlets have confirmed this, including ABC Australia and other sources covering the Iran war.

Albanese’s statement that questions of legality are “ones for the US and Israel”:

· TVBS News (Taiwan), “Australian PM says Iran’s military has been affected, doesn’t know what more the US wants to achieve” (April 2, 2026) 

Albanese’s national address on economic shocks:

· BBC News, “Iran war economic shocks will last ‘months’, says Australia’s PM” (April 1, 2026) 

Albanese urging Australians to limit fuel use and switch to public transport:

· BBC News (April 1, 2026) 

Jillian Segal’s plan to combat antisemitism, including university funding threats:

· The Conversation (via NewsBreak), “Envoy’s plan to fight antisemitism would put universities on notice over funding” (March 2026) 

· Times Higher Education, “Australian universities face funding threat over antisemitism” (July 10, 2025) 

Segal’s “report card” and assessment criteria:

· The Conversation (March 2026) 

· Times Higher Education (July 2025) 

Group of Eight (Go8) CEO Vicki Thomson’s concerns:

· The Conversation (March 2026) 

NTEU President Dr Alison Barnes’s concerns about Greg Craven:

· The Conversation (March 2026) 

Greens Deputy Leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi’s statement:

· The Conversation (March 2026) 

Section IV: Chris Minns – The Premier Who Has Nothing to Lose

Minns indicating next year’s election will be his last as leader:

· Deniliquin Pastoral Times, “‘I won’t be here’: premier flags surprise exit plan” (March 2, 2026) 

Minns revealing he will not be in parliament when Metro West opens in 2032:

· Deniliquin Pastoral Times (March 2, 2026) 

Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane’s response:

· Deniliquin Pastoral Times (March 2, 2026) 

Minns refusing to condemn violent police actions at pro-Palestine demonstration:

· Deniliquin Pastoral Times (March 2, 2026) 

Section V: The Energy Shock and the Global South

Strait of Hormuz blockade and oil price impact:

· BBC News (April 1, 2026) 

BRICS nations building a parallel economy:

· Global Policy Journal, “Colonial Nostalgia, Neo-Colonial Extraction, or Domestic Protectionism?” (March 5, 2026) 

Unequal exchange and drain from the global South:

· Hickel, J., et al. “Unequal exchange of resources and labour from the Global South” (New Political Economy, 2023). The specific figures cited ($2.2 trillion per year drain, $62 trillion total, $152 trillion with growth) are from Hickel’s research.

Rubio’s Munich address and implications for the Global South:

· Global Policy Journal (March 5, 2026) 

The “New Washington Dissensus” and nationalist conditionality regime:

· Global Policy Journal (March 5, 2026) 

Section VI: The Gaza-fication of Lebanon

Israel’s plan to raze houses near Lebanese border and establish security zone up to Litani River:

· Multiple news outlets have reported these statements by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz at the UN Security Council (late March 2026).

Section VII: The Permanent War Economy

US spending $1 billion per day on military operations:

· This figure has been cited in multiple news reports covering the Iran war’s economic impact.

$1.5 trillion war economy as a fantasy:

· This analysis is drawn from notes and the author’s assessment of the unsustainability of the proposed budget, supported by critiques from the Quincy Institute and Union of Concerned Scientists (cited in previous articles).

Additional Sources for Historical Context

Operation Eagle Claw (1980 failed US hostage rescue mission in Iran):

· U.S. Department of Defense archives; Carter Library historical records.

UN Commission of Inquiry findings on Israel (genocide determination):

· UN Human Rights Council reports from September 2025.

ICJ “plausible genocide” finding:

· International Court of Justice, South Africa v. Israel (January 2024).