By Owei Lakemfa
Washington’s three blind mice. Donald Trump, their President. Marco Rubio his Secretary of State and Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defence, now transformed into Secretary of War. A trinity of the greedy, the liar and the lawless, nesting in territorial and colonial delusions.
In carrying out mass destruction and massacres as they are doing in Iran and, promise to do in parts of the world, they become animated and even quote the scriptures claiming that their crimes against humanity have God’s blessings. So, in addition to their acts of infamy, they are heretics with a false sense of messianism.
Let us take their latest contradictions and lies. The New York Times of Monday, March 16, 2026 reported that the Trump regime seeks to oust Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
Trump followed with a public declaration: “You know, all my life I’ve been hearing about United States and Cuba, when will the United States having the honor of taking Cuba? That’s a big honor…Taking Cuba in some form, yeah, taking Cuba — I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it.” This reflects the mouse mentality of colonial theft and appropriation.
However, Secretary Rubio, a second-generation American of Cuban descent, said the New York Times publication is “fake” He wrote: “The reason so many in US media keep putting out fake stories like this one is because they continue to rely on charlatans & liars claiming to be in the know as their sources.”
The report and what Trump said about seizing Cuba is an open secret that has been out there for over six decades, that is over a decade before Rubio himself was born on May 28, 1971. So why lie so blatantly? Because it is in the nature of the triumvirate to lie.
Take the February 28, 2026 US-Israeli attacks on Iran which is less than three weeks old, Hegseth told the media “We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump we are finishing it.” So who started the war? In other words, the victim is accused of starting the war.
The Trump pretext for the war was that Iran had rebuilt its nuclear programme and could strike the US or any of its allies, anytime.
But the 44-year old Director of United States National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard in her testimony to the US Senate intelligence Committee revealed: “As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer (June 2025) Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability.”
So, in reality, the attack on Iran was to prevent an international agreement on the county’s nuclear programme. The Trumpian claim of Iranian nuclear capability was a mere pretext to attack Iran, force a change of government and gain absolute control of the Middle East and, of course Iran’s natural reserves. Iran with about 208.6 billion barrels, has the world’s third largest proven crude oil reserves while with about 32-34 trillion cubic metres, it has the second largest gas reserves known to humanity. After having invaded Venezuela, which has the world’s largest crude oil reserves of 303-304 billion barrels in January, 2026, the troika might have reached the conclusion that if it were able seize Iran, add Venezuela, with the US 48.3 billion barrels of crude oil, that will give their country, unassailable control of oil and gas in the world. This can be further guaranteed by the US client states in the Gulf with their own huge oil and gas reserves.
Perhaps the person most animated by the on-going destruction and slaughter in Iran and the Gulf is Hegseth. After one of the horrific bombings of Iran, he excitedly told the media at his Pentagon office: “Death and destruction from the sky all day long… This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.” For him, there are no rules of engagement, nothing like crimes against humanity; all is fair in war.
The 45-year old political science graduate from Princeton University had enlisted in the US army national guard. He later became leader of Concerned Veterans for America, an advocacy club from which he was separated for alleged financial mismanagement.
In 2017, he was accused of rape. He entered into an agreement with his accuser which included monetary payment and a confidentiality clause.
In 2018 while in the middle of divorce proceedings from his wife, Samantha Deering, his mother, Penelope Hegseth, an executive business coach, wrote him an email which remains in circulation, stating: “You are an abuser of women – that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
He worked with Fox and later married Jennifer Rauchet a producer at Fox with whom he had a child in 2017 while they were married to separate partners.
Apart from dealings with women and alcohol, Hegseth also propagates an extreme form of Christianity equivalent to an ISIS-type Islamic jihad.
All these were known to the US Senate which in screening him had a 50–50 split. Vice President, James David Vance casted the tie-breaking vote which made Hegseth Secretary of War.
After a particularly horrifying attack on Iranians, Hegesth while briefing journalists in his office, theatrically bowed his head in prayers saying he was “drawing strength from Psalm 144.”
He prayed: “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.” Then added: “May the Lord grant unyielding strength to our warriors, unbreakable protection to them and our homeland, and total victory over those who seek to harm them.”
Beyond the on-going slaughter in Iran, the Gulf, Israel and Lebanon. Plus, the connivance of Western Europe that rather than work for a ceasefire, obviously wants Iran obliterated, we should expect further attacks against nations by the troika. To save the world, all humans committed to peace, progress, social justice and development, need to unite against the warmongers and extremists.
I am at this point reminded of the contributions of a US citizen at the August 12-13, 2024 International Conference to End Colonialism, held in Abuja. He said those trying to reset the US from outside are merely knocking their heads against a brick wall. The solution he said, is an implosion. So, such people should support US citizens to change their country in the interest of humanity.
