I wish for the well-being of our troops in the Middle East.
They deserve a better president.
Email I received yesterday:
Peter, I agree with Trump that Iran is a danger to the world. Should Democrats be hedging their comments on the war? Maybe our actions there will turn Iran into a friendly nation. What should Democrats be thinking or saying about this war?
Most of my readers are old enough to remember when the U.S. decided to make war on Iraq. People who were early critics, including Barack Obama, looked wise in hindsight. People like Hillary Clinton who were on record in support of the Iraq war, looked foolish. Maybe Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction. People want to be on the right side of history before the history is written.
My response to the inquiry:
I wish for the well-being of our troops in Iran because I am an American. Those troops are an extension of me and my country, and I am vicariously responsible, even if I did not vote for Trump. My generation of Americans was put into peril in Vietnam, and I empathized with their situation then and again now. The fact that the war was flawed in its purpose, and was continued for the cynical purpose of political advantage in the 1972 election, heightens the victimhood of Vietnam veterans and the nobility of their service. I don't blame the soldiers carrying out the war against Iran. Quite the opposite. I wish them well.
This war, done this way, by this president, is a mistake. Some things --heart surgery, for example -- need to be done carefully if they are to be done at all. If you plan to do the surgery with a chain saw, it is better not to do it. Trump is carrying out this war in a way unlikely to produce a good outcome.
-- Trump is continuing his pattern of turning our republic into a serial dictatorship by defying Congress' power to declare war. The Constitution is collateral damage.
-- Trump sprung this on our allies and the countries in the region, putting their governments, their citizens, and their economies in peril. A good outcome in Iran will require the cooperation of many nations. Trump demonstrated that we are a presumptuous, careless, untrustworthy hegemon that will ignore their interests in favor of ours.
-- Trump makes outrageous and arrogant demands on Iran. Trump first urged an organic revolution by the people of Iran to establish a new peace-seeking government without having made any provision for such a revolution. He then backtracked and said that he should shape their government, a comment so presumptuous as to make any good outcome less possible:.
"They are wasting their time. Khamenei's son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [RodrÃguez] in Venezuela."
He later told NBC news:
“We want them to have a good leader. We have some people who I think would do a good job.
-- Trump displays shocking ignorance of the historical, ethnic, and religious factors that would be part of any successful new government in Iran. For example, Trump urged the Kurdish ethnic minority in Iraq to revolt. Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, Iraq's Kurdish First Lady, responded:
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq - "In 1991, the Kurds were urged to rise up against the regime of Saddam Hussein, only to be abandoned when priorities changed. No one came to our defense when the regime deployed helicopter gunships and tanks to crush the uprising. Those memories remain vivid and etched in our minds.
Today, we commemorate that chapter as “Raparin” and we do not forget what it taught us.
More recently, we saw what happened in Northeast Syria, or Rojava. After all the promises that were made, after Syria’s Kurds stood on the front lines of the war against ISIS, we witnessed how they were treated.
Today, the Kurds of Iraq have finally tasted a measure of stability and dignity in life. Because of this, it is very difficult, indeed impossible, for Kurds to accept being treated as pawns by the world’s superpowers.
The experiences are there. The empty promises are there. Too often, the Kurds are remembered only when their strength or sacrifice is needed. For that reason, I appeal to all sides involved in this conflict. Leave the Kurds alone. We are not guns for hire."
Her tone displays what a bumbling troublemaker Trump is considered to be. She openly voiced contempt.
Trump established a brand that wins him support among his MAGA base, his damn-the-torpedoes, git-'er-done man of action. He doesn't wait for permission. He doesn't care about process. He alone can do it. Trump the singular hero.
His DOGE efforts with Elon Musk's symbolic chainsaw, his ICE department with careless and rough immigration enforcement, and his slap-dash Liberation Day tariffs are all part of a pattern. The Iran war is another iteration of sloppy execution.
Things might work out in Iran. I hope so. Nevertheless, a Democrat can condemn Trump for initiating a dangerous, poorly-planned war. Our troops deserve better. The country deserves better.
I am confident that history would be kind to that position.
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6 comments:
Shocking ignorance, bumbling trouble maker sounds about right. Maybe need to add malignant narcissist to the list.
Now he’s talking about boots on the ground. That means young American men shouldering rifles in foxholes against a vastly larger army. How many will die? Hundreds? Thousands? That’s a crazy way to fight this war. We should use our air power and Navy, not the Army. The enemy will fight to the death. They don’t mind dying for their country. Who are we dying for, Israel ? If ground troops are necessary, let the Israelites do it. Keep our guys away.
This is Trump shooting from the hip. It will turn out badly. If we’re still slogging it out by November, the mid-terms will be a disaster for the Republicans. Kiss MAGA goodbye.
I reread Dune. Change oil for "spice" and you have the war with Iran. The survivers drifted into the desert to become a permenant enemy of the empire.
That may be a theatrical stretch but the story line illustrates nothing good can come from this war with Iran.
The war has exposed the worlds exploitive powers to be behind-the-scenes manipulators and troublemakers and Trump a useful idiot.
Your correspondent, quoted at the start of your column, shows an appalling ignorance of both history and current reality when he says that Iran is a danger to the world. It is the U.S. that has been a danger to Iran, to say nothing of the rest of the world, whom we attack with appalling frequency. In 1953, the U.S. and Great Britain conspired to overthrow a democratically elected leader in Iran because he wanted to renegotiate the sweetheart oil contracts with Western oil companies that the Shah had put in place to the detriment of his own people. We then reinstated the shah and helped him brutalize and oppress his own people. Once he was overthrown, we then helped Saddam Hussein of Iraq make war on him with the loss of huge numbers on both sides. As for Iran's nuclear weapons program, it willingly gave it up when the US and other major powers signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2014 and put its nuclear facilities under continuing inspection by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. Trump then pulled us out of the treaty and re-imposed harsh sanctions, Biden refused to get back into the Joint Agreement and lift sanctions. Having done all that, the U.S. has the gall to say that Iran's nuclear weapons program threatens the world. The last thing to mention is Iran's support of armed organizations trying to keep Israel from utterly wiping out Palestinians. We regard as perfectly fine our arming Israel as it wipes them out, but we are always the good guys and anyone who opposes us must be the bad guys. Your correspondent needs to step out of his American bubble and see the world as most of the world sees it, which is that the US and Israel are the constant causes of war in the Middle East.
I wish for the well-being of all people in the Middle East, but our troops don't belong there. They've become glorified security guards for multinational corporations, especially Big Oil. We all deserve a better president, except for those who voted for him.
Pahlavi “brutalized and oppressed” his own people, but no acknowledgement of Khomeini and Khameini in that very connection? Israel is a “constant cause” of war in the Middle East—does that go for 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973? For 10/7/23? Iran’s bellicosity is attributable to wanting to prevent Israel from “utterly wiping out Palestinians”, when the avowed goal of the Islamist regime has long been to utterly wipe out Israel?
Leave for now the rather glib claim of a “democratically elected” Mossadegh (yes, in that he halted said election to prevent ongoing parliamentary results from turning against him). Leave for now the dubious efficacy of the 2014 nuclear deal.
None of the foregoing vindicates Trump’s actions. But when it comes to decrying partisan or ideological bubbles, I fear this may be an occasion for “Physician, heal thyself”.
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