As the bombardments accelerate, the nations affected swell to 15 and the death toll in Iran surpasses 1,300, this is how the leader of the “free world” eventually describes his choice to launch the war.
“We were having negotiations with these lunatics. It was my opinion that they were going to attack us.”
These Iunatics. His opinion.
These are the code words now guiding our nation 250 years into its independence.
The rationales keeps shifting, as the language from the Trump administration grows more schoolyard bully. They won’t even call it a war. Except when they do.
The claim of “imminent risk” to the U.S. turned out to a lie. As CBS noted, “The president’s closest advisers have been unable to point to any specific threat to the U.S. from Iran that required urgent action.”
In an apparent sign of progress after some saber-rattling, Trump had said Iran was interested in talking. Next thing we knew, we were bombing it.
But he wouldn’t say war, calling the missiles “military actions” — begging the question of why his Secretary of War Peter Hegseth was tapped to answer press questions about it. Hegseth has his own way with words. Asked if there would be boots on the ground he replied, “Why in the world would we tell you… anybody, what we plan to do?”
Then referring to the President’s thoughts on what happens next, the War secretary said, “We don’t know exactly what his headspace is.”
His headspace?” Was he admitting there is no plan and they’re making it up as he goes along?
Later, in a Pentagon briefing, Hegseth offered this assessment of Iran: “They are toast and they know it – or at least soon enough they will know it.”
Toast. What we eat for breakfast.
Others around Trump call it war, and sometimes Trump does too, like when he announced, “The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war, but we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future and it’s a noble mission.”
An admission of war despite no imminent threat and still no hint of what this noble mission is.
Some of his supporters apparently tried to protect the President from any consequence of flouting the War Powers Act, which requires consultation with Congress “in every possible instance” before deployment. Hours before House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed this week, “We’re not at war,” Trump had publicly declared, “We’re doing very well on the war front.”
And the War Powers Act? Secretary of State Marco Rubio shrugged that off, scoffing in reply to a question, “We can’t notify 535 members of Congress” beforehand.
Then again, consulting this Congress, dominated as it is by Trump yes-men, probably wouldn’t have mattered. That was later proved when exactly one senator – Rand Paul -- voted to require War Powers approval.
On the global front, the United Nations charter allows the use of military force by member states only with authorization of the U.N. security council, or in self-defense against an actual or imminent armed attack. Neither actual nor imminent was the case here. But Trump prefers to take his cues from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long lobbied against a U.S. peace deal with Iran, in favor of attacking it.
Having killed 72,000 Palestinians since Hamas’ Oct. 7 2023 attack, Netanyahu’s Israel found his co-conspirator for a war on Iran in Trump.
None of this is to undermine Iran’s autocratic behavior, and violent suppression of its own people, at least 7,000 of whom have been killed in response to anti-government protests. But the Iranian people are not America’s reason for getting involved. Our missiles even targeted an area with a girls’ school, killing up to 175, mostly between ages seven 7 and 12.
And lest we forget, the Trump administration is doing its own share of suppressing free speech at home by suing U.S. news organizations and killing and wounding protesters. As to prompting democracy in Iran: After killing Ayatollah Khameini, the U.S. president now demands the right to choose Iran’s next Supreme Leader.
Trump selecting a Muslim cleric. Is that a joke?
Meanwhile, back home Iowa has already lost three service members to this war of Israel‘s choice. As oil prices surge, gas jumped 11 cents to an average of 3.11 a gallon. On national news, Iowa and six other states were was singled out for gas prices jumping by more than 30 cents. The stock market is down.
And so is public confidence. Only one in four approved of the strikes within 48 hours after it started, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Support for this war, instigated by a president who had pledged not to get involved in any overseas, remains low.
Yet every member of Iowa’s congressional delegation backs Trump on this. And Hegseth says that he, his wife and whole family pray for the troops. “Our Cabinet prays for them...” he continued. “I pray simply for the biblical wisdom to see what is right and the courage to do it.”
Does that biblical wisdom condone a war that he had just boasted “was never meant to be a fair fight?” In his words, “We are punching them while they’re down.”
So this is what war looks like to those in charge of America now: The overnight shredding of age-old measures of diplomacy and decorum, negotiation, planning, and collaborating with international organizations. Replaced by crude sound bites that sound more like a Saturday Night Live sketch.
Lunatics. Headspace. Toast. And an unintended slip of the truth: Not a fair fight.
A week from hell, actually.
Heaven help us.
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