The President of the United States will declare victory in the country’s current conflict with Iran. His sycophants will cheer and acclaim his glorious accomplishment.
But the actual loser will be the United States.
Folks might believe the hype that the country won Trump’s Middle East excursion. His armed forces bombed the hell out of Iran’s infrastructure. We saw the pictures on our screens – the smoke, the people running away from the catastrophe, the bombed out buildings, the funeral processions, the wailing mourners.
We, onlookers thousands of miles from the battlefield, are supposed to feel glory in the devastation and praise the Architects of Destruction.
All I feel is sadness and anger.
Sad that so many lives have been taken, both American and Iranian. Sad there has been so much destruction perpetrated by both sides. Sad that civilians back home can do nothing but watch the disaster unfold on our screens.
I am angry that Trump went to war.
Iran is a rogue, dangerous nation. But the answer to change was not to drop bombs, kill the leaders, and watch the country morph into a neutral nation that poses no threat. Security experts could have told the Administration a brief exchange would not be advisable or workable. They could have told him the Strait of Hormuz would be in play. They most likely did tell him. But DJT listens only to the bloated ego floating in his head.
DJT’s foolhardiness drags on for weeks. It may end tonight, or tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Meanwhile, billions of dollars funding the folly plunge down a cavernous black hole.
In the short term we may win military actions. In the long run our country loses.
The political, economic, and social dynamics rocking the country, which the war intensifies, will take years to heal. Except for a sliver of elite wealthy lucky enough to relish lower taxes and capitalize on war, obtaining billion dollar contracts for their companies for wartime necessities, most Americans’ economic condition worsens. The folks in charge continue to push us down.
The social fabric of the country frays as people protest. DJT and his cronies dig in their heels, working hard behind the scenes to push through as many Project 2025 initiatives as possible before the November elections.
The government borrows money to support the war, the deficit soars, and we the people pay. Folks suffer. America suffers. Education suffers, health care suffers, infrastructure suffers, the families of those lost in the war suffer. Gas prices spike, food prices remain high, jobs are scarce, inflation refuses to fall, housing is expensive, low-cost homes and rentals almost obsolete, and the deficit skyrockets. The funds tumbling down that black hole could go far in helping the country – for infrastructure, health care, education, housing, emergency services, and the list goes on. Unfortunately the party in power raises their voice against spending money on anything for the good and welfare of the American people, but when funding for a wartime extravaganza enters the conversation, they suddenly become quiet.
We watch our country decline. Our adversaries sit back, smile, and wait as the country sinks under a burden of debt, ignorance, and the cumulative problems of an Administration’s appalling policies and pronouncements.
We have lost the respect of most of the world, both allies and antagonists. Countries world-wide bear the negative results of a war they want no part of – a spike in oil prices, shortage of goods such as fertilizer, pharmaceuticals, and electronics, inflation, political instability.
America’s foreign policy has had successes and failures throughout its 250 year history. Serious blunders occurred, including and especially in dealings with the Middle East and southeast Asia. Leaders have been arrogant and parochial, but the current Administration has taken arrogance, ignorance, and narrow-mindedness to a new over-the-top level.
The world watches as our leaders throw America’s status as a first-rate nation, a moral nation, a nation that at one time could be trusted and counted on, onto the dustbin of history.
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