When you set out to take Vienna, Take Vienna

Do you know how hard it is for a proud man to admit that his decades of dedicated service, with its attendant sacrifice, were a complete waste of time? Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, . . . you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Acknowledging the truth behind 20+ years of forever wars has drawn me closer to our savior, but it has not set me free. It makes me angry, fanning the red-hot coals of hatred in my heart for the idiots responsible for our repeated national humiliations. I now appreciate the Japanese concept of gekokujo, meaning “those below overcome those above.” A term from centuries past, when lower-ranking samurai in unstable fiefdoms manipulated their superiors into being more aggressive.

Hatred is not a healthy emotion. It has no place in the heart of the enlightened soul of Timothy P Lynch. In fact, here’s a story I read that sounds too good to be true, but one worth sharing. It’s about a World War II concentration camp survivor who was named Wild Bill Cody by the American troops because his real name was five unpronounceable Polish syllables. They thought he had been at the camp a short time before they arrived because his posture was erect, his eyes bright, his energy indefatigable. Since he was fluent in English, French, German, and Russian, as well as Polish, he became an unofficial camp translator.

Though Wild Bill worked fifteen or sixteen hours a day, he showed no signs of weariness. His compassion for his fellow prisoners shone on his face, which is why the GIs sought him out when their spirits were low. When they found his papers, they were astonished to learn he had been in Wuppertal since 1939! For six years, he had lived on the same starvation diet and slept in the same airless, disease-ridden barracks as everyone else, yet without the slightest physical or mental deterioration.

He had seen his wife and five children killed by the Einsatzgruppen, who spared him because of his language skills. After that traumatic experience, he decided to spend the rest of his life—whether it was a few days or many years—loving every person he encountered. The implication is that if you love everyone unconditionally, as a dog does, you can not only survive but thrive on a starvation diet in freezing, disease-ridden barracks surrounded by dying men. There is no question that dogs make the best people sometimes, but I’m not sure how humans can be as driven as a good dog to love everyone they meet. The story sounds suspect, but it is too good to fact-check.

It’s a comforting thought that is apropos for the moment because I’m feeling defeat is being snatched from the jaws of victory, and it is making my blood boil. Last February, I wrote how the current punitive campaign against Iran was long overdue. I’ve continued to support President Trump ever since, despite my reservations about the ceasefires. On the Mensa Brothers podcast, I echoed the dismay of Colonel Will Coistantini, USMC (Ret), about waiting 44 days to blockade Iran’s ports. Yes, that move will cause Iran to lose money and oil wells when they no longer have the storage capacity to keep them online. But that’s not the point. The time-tested Napoleon maxim: “When you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna,” is the point. We should have blockaded their ports from day one instead of incrementally calibrating the pressure on whoever is ruling Iran now.

According to Robert Kagan, Iran has checkmated Trump and “this defeat will carry lasting consequences unlike any America has endured before.” There is no reason to pay attention to a cake-eating partisan shill. I don’t know what a “neocon analyst” is, but I doubt they sit in sinecures like the Brookings Institution preaching the gospel of military defeatism for a living.

The New York Times contends that Iran had 30 of its 33 missile sites up and running and has retained 70 percent of both its missile launchers and prewar missile stocks. That report is based on “people with knowledge of American intelligence assessments,” which renders it meaningless. In a demonstration of the negative effects of severe Trump Derangement Syndrome, the NYT doubled down on crazy with a report that the dastardly Jews have developed rape dogs to torment their peace-loving Palestinian prisoners. This obviously impossible use of dogs joins a long list of animals Israel has weaponized to torment Arabs. Pigs, dolphins, hawks, cows, sharks, squirrels, rats, hyenas, and vultures have all allegedly been trained to do the bidding of the Zionists. Is there anything they can’t do?

On the other side of the media spectrum, reports claim the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have been conducting air strikes inside Iran. Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have capable air forces and don’t need our help or permission to strike back at the Mullahs, who have been attacking them for months. The seemingly reliable and well-informed Zineb Riboua reports that Iran’s economy is collapsing. It is impossible to get a firm grip on what is really happening. But we don’t need accurate press reports to understand the truth behind military campaigns. The longer this goes on, the more anti-Trump propagandists will paint the effort as a failure.

So what’s going on? Without reliable media, we can only make educated guesses based on what we know about the central figures involved in this drama. I can’t speak to the Iranian side because nobody knows who is in control there. I can say this about President Trump: he is a politician who believes he is the greatest deal maker in history. He knows that the media and think tank historians will never recognize his genius unless he single-handedly defeats radical Shia Islam. He can only gain entrance to the pantheon of great statesmen by reconfiguring the Middle East. I don’t know what President Trump knows, but I do know his vanity is driving him to make a deal that will make him the greatest political leader of the modern era.

It is difficult for Americans to trust that our president and his cabinet know what they are doing and will deliver us a solid win against Iran. That has never happened in my lifetime. Hope is not a plan. Epictetus wrote, “Do not seek to have everything that happens happen as you wish, but wish for everything to happen as it actually does happen, and your life will flow well.” I’m not sure how this sage advice helps with my fears of the Iranian situation imploding, but I’m not one to ignore Epictetus. It is not unreasonable to assume that what actually happens in Iran will work in our favor. Either way, the end state will soon be upon us, and maybe this time we’ll be the winners.