Ghastly miscalculation

I'm trying my best to keep current events in perspective, but then I realize I don't know how to measure perspective.

I thought my high school civics classes would help, and then I thought dabbling in the humanities (the interpretation of human expression) in college might offer some guidance. It's one reason why I ended up with a degree in Liberal Arts English. I wasn't a particularly serious student in college (much to my current regret), but I did enjoy my Shakespeare class, as well as those art history and introductory music history classes (I once wrote a paper on The Beatles classic Abbey Road album. I wish I had it now, just for laughs). And, of course, I relished all my critical and creative writing classes.

Dad ended up being a Moravian minister, so whatever theology might have rubbed off on me became a part of my overall exposure to the humanities. Hopefully, I learned how to think, to communicate and to do so with empathy.

The humanities are usually course curriculum because they are designed to help a person gain perspective into points of view other than his own. It might be why I still carry elements of the hippie movement with me, which I also fostered in college. Make love and not war is never a drag, man. In fact, it's far out.

Humanities is also why I find myself in my particular conundrum today.

Why is our country in an illegal war against Iran? Did Vietnam not teach us anything? Or is it because the baby boomers  – whose war in Vietnam defined a generation – my generation – is aging and dying off without passing on the bloody history? It was a forever war. It had no purpose outside of feeding the military industrial complex. It killed, maimed and poisoned many of us.

This time, we're being led by into a war by an egomaniac – a pedophile president who is a convicted felon – with no end in sight. The only real conclusion we can logically make is that he is trying to distract us from the Epstein files, where his name appears many thousands of times. In fact, how much have you heard of the Epstein files the past couple of weeks? I rest my case.

I don't know what the answer is. Even if Trump ended his military misadventure at this hour, I suspect Iran is pissed off enough to continue an accelerated terror campaign against this country. Will we feel safe in our high-rises? Or crossing bridges? Or flying to distant destinations? Or even breathing the air?

Talk about a forever war. What a grievous miscalculation this was.

"Cry 'Havoc!' And let slip the dogs of war." – Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1.

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." – "The End", The Beatles, Abbey Road.

 

 

 

 

Children in charge

There's a lot that gets me wound up about this completely unnecessary war with Iran. You can start with convicted felon president Donald Trump first, because he can't construct a clear, incisive yet simple sentence together without sounding like a 12-year-old seventh grader trying to deliver a report for school.

And I don't mean to insult seventh graders. Sorry.

But the war briefs we are getting from him are absurd propaganda and you get a sense that they are lies anyway. That could have something to do with the character he's shown us the past decade or so (Epstein files, adjudicated rapist, fraudster).

Rght now one of the worst is Pete Hegseth, a graduate of both Princeton University and Harvard Law School (pretty elitist there for somebody who often disparages the elite set), as well as a major in the Minnesota National Guard who served as a counter insurgency instructor in Afghanistan for eight months.

Last year he was appointed by Trump to be the Secretary of Defense, but Hegseth, in all of his misguided arrogance, has renamed his office the U.S. Department of War with himself as the Secretary of War (methinks you need Congressional approval to do that, but this administration seems to think the Constitution is a list of half-baked suggestions instead of actual law.

In Hegseth's latest press briefing from the Pentagon on Thursday, he sounded like an entitled child. Six American soldiers have died in the conflict, three American F-15 fighter jets (at $90 million apiece) were lost to friendly fire, and put us in a conflict that is costing this country – get this – a million dollars a day.

Sorry, but we have no money for health care. Check back later. 

Since hostilities began, the Straight of Hormuz has been closed, through which 20 percent of the world's oil passes. We are seeing the results at the pump, where gas at one local station jumped to $3.09 (from $2.79) in the morning and then to $3.19 in the afternoon.

At least a dozen nations have been attacked by Iran in response to Trump's war as the conflict spreads. Did the administration see that coming? Oops.

Meanwhile, Hegseth burped, "The dumb, politically correct wars of the past were the opposite of what we're doing here. They had vague objectives with restrictive, minimalist rules of engagement. No more. Our authorities are maxed out. Our capabilities are overwhelming and gathering still, as are those of our Islraeli partners. Our munitions are full up and our will is ironclad, which means our timeline is ours alone to control as long as it takes..."

Holy crap.

First off, what is a politically correct war? Seems to me Vietnam started off as a politically correct war, and look how that turned out with 58,000 American lives lost. And what exactly was accomplished other than seeding doubt in our own government. Were the two Gulf wars politically correct? Was Afghanistan?

One wag suggested the use of "politically correct" and "war" in the same breath were oxymorons, delivered by a moron.  

Secondly, what is the objective of a war with Iran? To stop its nuclear capability? I thought we did that last June. To effect regime change? I thought we didn't do regime change. Now Trump wants to be able to pick Iran's next leaders?

And what does Hegseth mean when he says "No more" to "restrictive" rules of engagement? No rules of engagement? So it's OK to commit war crimes? I guess that makes blowing up a girls' elementary school early in the conflict nothing more than collateral damage. Surely it's not a war crime.

Clearly, Hegseth is trying to control the narrative.

"When a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front-page news," said Hegseth. "I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step." 

Here we go again. Blame the press. But Hegseth's statement is highly offensive to the families of the six service members who died. In fact, it's pretty offensive to any service member who's died in any conflict. Somehow, Trump has managed to make this conflict about himself because the deaths make him look bad.

Like wearing a stupid baseball cap during the dignified return of the bodies. 

This is a souless administration that lacks dignity. Or compassion. Or intelligence.

 

 

 

War president

OK, let me get this straight.

The pedophile/rapist/liar/convicted felon who is serving as our president woke us up Saturday morning –wearing a decidedly unpresidential baseball cap – to tell us that he just bombed the crap out of Iran, ostensibly to make the world safer by decapitating the murderous and horrific Khamenei regime.

Remarkably, Iran's nuclear program – which Trump declared obliterated in last June's airstrikes – somehow managed to resurrect itself in less than a year and needed further tending to. Not so obliterated, apparently. 

Soooo, in the midst of current negotiations over Iran's nuclear program – which seemed to be making some headway – Trump couldn't resist from unleashing the huge military buildup he'd assembled in the Mediterranean and ordered the surprise airstrikes Saturday morning. He did it without Congressional approval, a violation of the Constitution. Bombs away. One of the first things destroyed with all this precision weaponry was a girls' school. Reportedly, more than 50 children were killed.

Yes. I feel safer now.

Trump has advertised himself as the "peace president" and claims that he has (arguably) resolved eight wars in the past year and thus can't figure out why he can't win the Nobel Peace Prize without cajoling one from a rightful recipient. Meanwhile, if you're keeping count, Trump has bombed seven countries – Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and Venezuela – in the past year alone. End a war, start a war. Peace president, my ass.

Repercussions are already here. Iran has retaliated with missile strikes against Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, Dubai, Jordan and Kuwait City. The strategic Straight of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil passes, is now closed. All that $1.98 gas Trump talked about in last week's State of the Union Grievance Address is fantasy now, or soon will be. 

There's a lot of talk here about a through line to the Epstein files and an apparent cover-up that seems to be growing every day in an effort to protect Trump, whose name is mentioned at least 38,000 times (if not more) in the files. Is the attack on Iran just another distraction? Could be. Trump once said that Obama would start a war in an effort to get elected. Now here we are just months from midterm elections and Trump is dealing with plummeting poll numbers. If Democrats gain control of the House of Representatives, Trump is likely facing another impeachment. Or at least investigation.

The big social media debate right now is: So what if Trump didn't have Congressional approval? Obama bombed the crap out of people, too (Obama Derangement Syndrome arises). 

I walked myself through a mental exercise yesterday, wondering if Trump acted without Congressional approval, then would the military be following illegal orders to execute this attack? One friend suggested that it might require a Judge Advocate General (JAG) to make that decision. It'll probably ever come up, but I though it was an interesting idea.

Here's the deal. A president can authorize military strikes without the approval of Congress under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which designates the president as Commander-in-Chief and allows him to direct the armed forces to defend the U.S.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 allows for urgent and limited actions, but requires the president to report to Congress within 48 hours. Unauthorized action is limited to 60 days.

Having said the above, presidents generally don't have authority for prolonged, full-scale war without Congressional approval. 

Here's where it gets a little dicey. The Department of Justice has argued in the past that a president can bypass Congress if the military operation does not rise to the level of "war." So a definition is required here. Constitutionally, what is war? I suspect the Supreme Court might get called in at some point.

Whatever it is, I think we're in the process of regime change in Iran. That's pretty clear with the death of Khamenei. What's not so clear is where do we go from here? Do we set up a provisional government? Install our own leaders? Institute a democratic republic instead of a theocracy?

What are the unintended consequences? What have we unleashed? 

More to the point, I don't think you complete a regime change with airstrikes alone. It usually requires boots on the ground. And that usually means body bags.

Are we ready for that?