No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to not read way too many of the stories about Trump’s Folly, the US and Israel attack on Iran. I fool myself, as I read, thinking I can figure out what the frick they think they are doing, and how this will turn out. Any silver lining in these dark clouds of war so far is escaping me.
The best I can figure from the cheap seats thousands of miles away is simple and maybe simple-minded. Trump and Netanyahu seem to have taken a war to Iran, because they could, and because they both think they will never have Iran in a weaker position than they now. They have no idea how this will turn out. They’ve crossed their fingers and are hoping they throw a bunch of missiles in that direction and somehow it will come out all right.
In an op-ed, clearly planted by the administration a retired general and former head of Central Command with Middle Eastern responsibility for the US military forces, made the case that Iran’s government was evil, a threat to the region and its own people, and its weakness is an opportunity. Some of that is certainly true. Reading the piece, I couldn’t help feeling this was a backseat driver, who must have been begging back when to be able to drive. One clear “tell” was his argument that almost every president other than Trump has been fooled and duped by Iran.
In another op-ed, this time by a former national security advisor to President Obama, he makes a point-by-point argument that underlines the horrors when you wed autocracy with unrestrained military might. Clearly as well-backgrounded as the former general, there was no way to read his piece and believe that sober calculations had been made or that this would end well. The notion that there could be “Venezuelan solution” here, as Trump seems to wish were the case, he does everything but ridicule.
Meanwhile, trying to following Trump’s own rationalizations for all of this in real policy terms is impossible. There seems to be no real endgame. Now he says this could last five or six weeks or, essentially, as long as it takes. Wow, have we heard that before over and over. How is this not Trump’s own addition to the “forever wars,” that even he had promised to end and criticized continually? This is when unrestrained ego trumps any kind of commonsense.
Remember when Bush II and his generals made the case for Iraq? Even though built on fiction, they tried to prepare the American public for war, brought Congress along with them, and thought it critical that they made the case in the United Nations and had allies in this coalition of the willing. None of this now. Congress which is responsible for declaring war has been sidelined. All reports indicate that Israel and the US just put their heads together and didn’t bother asking or informing allies. There was no interest in moving public opinion. One minute we’re negotiating, and the next report is bombs away.
All of the news is bad and depressing. Short of a miracle, how can this end well?
Photos depict local Columbus, Ohio protest on Saturday, February 28 at Goodale Park.
