NOW IT'S A WAR

 

In what can only be called a complete refutation of the "US First" platform that he ran on in both 2016 and 2024, President Donald Trump, in a joint move with the Israeli government,  has gone all in on war against the country of Iran.  While he has bombed the country before in the past (most recently, he bombed their nuclear facilities back in June), this time he has gone beyond simply hitting a few targets.  The US bombings have targeted several cities in the country, while Trump has said that he wants not just a cessation of the country's alleged nuclear weapon ambitions, but also regime change.  He has openly admitted that Iran's inevitable counterattacks could result in American military casualties, something that hasn't happened since 2021.  Will the bombing be followed up with ground troops being sent in, much like what happened in George W Bush's ultimately disastrous Iraq war?  Trump hasn't  discussed that yet.   

Now, it must be said that the theocratic Iranian government has been brutally running the country with an iron hand since the late 70's, mistreating women and anyone that's LGBT.  And the people of the country are sick of it, with protests erupting around the country as its sanction ridden economy has crumbled.  Sadly, the government's response to those protests was to crush them, with thousands of Iranian citizens being killed or wounded.

But it is one thing to admit that the current government of Iran is terrible and a whole other to say that the American government should risk the lives of American troops to overthrow it.  Iran, after all, is a country around the size of California with a population of 90 million people.  It might be easy to remove the mullahs running the country, but bringing stability and a superior, democratic system may prove much harder.  It certainly did in Iraq.

Speaking of that war, it must be mentioned that, even though I opposed it, the Bush administration did their utmost to sell the invasion to both the American people and the world.  Trump has done virtually nothing to sell what is now a war to either the American populace or the world at large , with only a few vague, false references about the threat of Iran building nuclear weapons that could reach the US, something that analysts think couldn't be possible for years.  And Trump has completely ignored getting any kind of congressional approval for what is, I must emphasize again,  now a flat out war, even though it is only congress that is supposed to declare war.  But the Republicans in congress have just spent the last year allowing Trump to run roughshod over their constitutional powers, so its no surprise that he expects no pushback from congress over this latest attack.

So, why has Trump now gotten us into what may turn out to be the very kind of "stupid war" that he ran on avoiding?  Part of the reason may lie in his connection with Israel Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, whom he has supported whole heartedly, and who has been gunning for some kind of overthrow of Iran for years now.  I think another reason is that Trump, now thinking about his legacy, wants to be remembered as the president that took out a regime that has been a thorn in the side of American and its allies ever since it first began.  But many of those allies may not take Trump's aggression positively, seeing as they also stand to face blowback from Iran, while our global rivals like Russia and China may very well take Iran's side in the conflict, leading to outright global tensions.  I really don't think that Trump has thought out this war carefully, and, because he's surrounded himself with sycophants, he hasn't had to.  And while the possibility of this whole conflict ending well, with a democratic Iran put in place with relative peace and a minimum of American casualties is possible, right now I fear the worst.  I hope I'm wrong.