I have a new column this week on OnlySky. It’s about the war with Iran and Trump’s continuing efforts to go down in history as the worst president America has ever had.
As a candidate, Trump’s only good idea was to oppose new foreign wars. Now he’s thrown that aside, just like he’s discarded every other principle he ever paid lip service to, and started an unprovoked war with Iran in the middle of peace talks. He’s committed all the evils he promised, plus all the evils he denounced.
But rather than the conflict ending in easy victory just because we killed some of their leaders, Iran refused to surrender. They’re bombarding American bases and allies all over the Middle East with ballistic missiles and drones. They’ve closed the Strait of Hormuz, causing a worldwide oil price shock, inflation, and likely an economic recession or even a depression.
Obviously, I’m not on the side of the mullahs, who are a gang of brutal and repressive fanatics who slaughter their own people for protesting. I wish Iran could be reconstructed as a secular democracy. But theocratic fundamentalism isn’t a problem that can be solved by dropping bombs from a plane.
Read the excerpt below, then click through to see the full piece. This column is members-only, so consider signing up! Members of OnlySky also get special benefits, like a subscriber newsletter:
The sheer stupidity, incuriosity, and smugly self-satisfied ignorance of this administration defies belief. Even Trump doesn’t know why we’re at war. He and his henchmen have offered a fog bank of shifting justifications about why he did this—to bring about regime change? to end Iran’s nuclear program? to heed Israel’s wishes? or something else entirely?
Whatever the reason, we started this war with no forethought, no plan, and no preparation. Trump and his lackeys seemed to think they could drop some bombs, kill the ayatollah, and immediately impose a new, compliant ruler. It was a wildly delusional fantasy of easy victory, similar to Vladimir Putin expecting to conquer Ukraine in three days.
Leave a Reply