{"id":1543011,"date":"2025-06-22T02:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T06:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1543011"},"modified":"2025-06-22T02:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T06:45:00","slug":"worst-ally-army-colonel-removed-from-us-joint-chiefs-staff-over-israel-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/worst-ally-army-colonel-removed-from-us-joint-chiefs-staff-over-israel-criticism\/1543011\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Worst Ally’: Army Colonel Removed From US Joint Chiefs Staff Over Israel Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Worst Ally’: Army Colonel Removed From US Joint Chiefs Staff Over Israel Criticism<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A United States Army colonel has been removed from his position on the Pentagon staff supporting the Joint Chiefs after his Israel-critical social media posts were publicized<\/strong> by\u00a0Jewish News Syndicate <\/em>(JNS).<\/em>\u00a0Until this week, Army Col Nathan McCormack led the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Levant and Egypt branch<\/strong>. That team is part of the Joint Staff J5<\/a>, which\u00a0proposes strategies, plans, and policy recommendations to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Within hours of Tuesday’s JNS<\/em> report, McCormack was yanked from his post, with a Pentagon official telling<\/a> JNS:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe individual is being returned to [the Army] while the matter is being investigated<\/strong>…The information on the X account does not reflect the position of the Joint Staff or the Department of Defense…Our global alliances and partnerships are vital to our national security, enhancing our collective defense, deterrence and operational reach.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Colonel Nathan McCormack was commissioned as an infantry second lieutenant two months after the United States invaded Iraq over false claims of a nuclear weapons program\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Here are the published\u00a0comments that led to McCormack’s removal:\u00a0<\/p>\n

May 2025<\/a>: “Netanyahu and his judeosupremacist cronies <\/strong>are determined to prolong the conflict for their own goals: either to remain in power or to annex the land.”<\/p>\n

June 2024<\/a>: “The more Israel’s death cult<\/strong> escalates toward Hezbollah, the more we will see show-of-force attacks like this and 13 April.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

June 2024<\/a>: \u201cThe U.S. has not been an honest broker. We have overwhelmingly enabled Israel\u2019s bad behavior.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

May 2024<\/a>: Amid talk of pushing Gaza residents into other countries, McCormack wrote, “[Israel] wants to expel them and cleanse ‘Eretz Israel’ <\/strong>of ethnic Palestinians.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

April 2024<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019ve lately been considering whether we might be Israel\u2019s proxy and not realized it yet. Our worst \u2018ally.\u2019 We get literally nothing out of the \u2018partnership\u2019 other than the enmity of millions<\/strong> of people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oct 2023<\/a>: “I agree that Israel has an absolute right to respond militarily, and that civilians may legally be caught in the crossfire, but you are ignoring the requirement of proportionality. Israel\u2019s responses always (always\u2014not hyperbole) disproportionately target Palestinian civilians.<\/strong>”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The JNS<\/em> report<\/a> that prompted McCormack’s removal from the J5 gave no indication of how his semi-anonymous posts came to the pro-Israel outlet’s attention<\/strong>. Up until his 2021 death, zealously pro-Israel billionaire and mega-campaign-contributor\u00a0Sheldon Adelson was JNS’s largest single donor<\/a>\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b. The JNS<\/em> article included a disapproving quote from\u00a0another Adelson-funded entity,\u00a0the Foundation for Defense of Democracies<\/a>, which — despite its generic-sounding name — declared in its initial tax-exempt-status-filing that its goal was to “enhance Israel’s image in North America.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

McCormack’s posts were made on X under an account using the name “Nate” and the handle “@mick_or_mack,”\u00a0with a profile that used a cartoon version of himself.\u00a0His account<\/a> no longer exists<\/strong>, but several of his posts are still viewable via internet archive links. McCormack didn’t strive for full anonymity<\/strong>, as he once posted\u00a0a photo<\/a> of a Meritorious Service Medal certificate showing his full name. In May, he replied<\/a> to an X user, “I\u2019m the Joint Staff J5 Israel branch chief.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Dec 2008, then-Captain McCormack speaks to a sheikh in Butoma, Iraq while serving as a 25th Infantry Division company commander\u00a0<\/strong>(photo: US Army)\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pentagon told JNS<\/em>\u00a0another officer has been assigned to “look into the matter,” but it’s not clear that McCormack violated any Army policies<\/strong>. The branch’s social media guide<\/a>\u00a0says “soldiers are encouraged to express their opinions of the political process online and offline.” It\u00a0advises soldiers to “avoid use of DoD titles, insignia, uniforms or symbols in a way that could imply DoD sanction or endorsement of content on your personal page.”\u00a0McCormack’s profile included a disclaimer <\/strong>that his posts \u201cdo not represent the position of the Department of Defense or any of its components.\u201d Then again, one of his posts might be read as attributing a position to the DOD, as he wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cAlong with the World Health Organization and United Nations, we (Department of Defense, Department of State and the U.S. Intelligence Community) consider the Gaza Health Ministry figures to be generally reliable<\/strong> (though not precise), but probably less so now than they were originally due to the general destruction and chaos in Gaza.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Even if he’s spared any formal discipline, it’s safe to say there’s zero chance McCormack will be returning to his position on the J5 staff<\/strong>.\u00a0Beyond its general influence over US policy and personnel, Israel has a history of a strong presence directly inside the Pentagon<\/strong>. Here’s how former Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson — who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff amid the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq\u00a0— described what he witnessed:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udea8Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: \u2018It\u2019s UNQUESTIONABLE that the Epstein business was heavily influenced by MOSSAD!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I watched Mossad take over the Pentagon in 2002. The Pentagon was infiltrated by Mossad. They did not need any identification to get through the river entrance to the\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/rZtnFTPc1k<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) June 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

A Dallas<\/a> native and\u00a0Texas A&M<\/a> graduate, McCormack was commissioned as an infantry second lieutenant just two months after the United States invaded Iraq <\/strong>based on the false pretense that Saddam Hussein was developing a nuclear weapon. As the United States contemplated that invasion, Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress:\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There is\u00a0no question whatsoever\u00a0that Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons\u2014no question whatsoever.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“If you take out Saddam, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

McCormack would later be deployed to Iraq, where he surely witnessed for himself the utter emptiness of Netanyahu’s claims, and the catastrophic consequences of acting on them. As the Pentagon participated in deliberations over joining another Middle East war on nearly-identical premises, Colonel<\/strong>\u00a0McCormack’s contrarian perspective might have been particularly valuable at such a pivotal moment<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 06\/21\/2025 – 22:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/worst-ally-army-colonel-removed-us-joint-chiefs-staff-over-israel-criticism<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Worst Ally’: Army Colonel Removed From US Joint Chiefs Staff Over Israel Criticism A United States Army colonel has been removed from his position on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1543012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1543011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1543011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1543012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1543011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1543011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1543011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}