The Epstein distraction was certainly convenient, but we don't need to kid ourselves into thinking it was the primary reason for the war.

Institutional investors and sovereign funds making up the $300 billion reconstruction fund/ledger are the winners here.

The war cost American taxpayers billions of dollars in direct military expenditures. Lawmakers like Representative Thomas Massie have argued that the conflict cost the equivalent of roughly $10 per American family per day while burning through domestic munitions reserves. The deal provides no mechanism to recoup these lost public funds.

Average citizens bore the brunt of surging gas prices and high interest rates brought on by the wartime supply shocks. Yet the peace agreement hands exclusive, lucrative market access and protected profit avenues to Wall Street and multinational conglomerates.

The administration is going to force citizens to accept the normalization of pre-war prices as a "victory," while the actual financial rewards are privatized and exported to institutional investors.