Is Trump’s war with Iran over?
Maybe. Documents have been signed. Proclamations have been made.
Was Trump’s war with Iran worth it? Many are saying no. Personnelente shared a good image (originally on NewsThump, a satire site) demonstrating the differences between before and after:
Yes, that kind of winning is like scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter with two minutes remaining when your team is down by four touchdowns and the other team has pulled half its starters.
Regime change wasn’t affected. The nuclear program, while degraded, exists. Many Iranians were killed and injured, which probably will be a negative point for our nation; Iranians will look at the destruction and think of the dead and remember, the US did this to us. I hope they amend that with, Trump did this to us.
I always viewed the war through a prism. Trump needed something to boost his approval ratings and thought bombing Iran was a path. Experienced generals and diplomats had been removed and a blowhard was installed as the Defense Secretary, so there were no guardrails. Likewise, a Congress led by weak Republicans wasn’t going to stand in the way of ‘their’ POTUS.
Two, Trump needed distractions from failures stacking and the Epstein files. The war was launched as part of Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! to distract us from his character and the evidence that exists that reveals his past.
The third reason is that this is Trump. He wanted to do it to prove he could do it. He’s excited to have all that power and wanted to flex it, to ‘show the world’ who he is. He thinks that’s manly. ‘Bad ass’.
The world already understood who he was; Trump cemented our understanding of him as a shallow thinker who thinks he can bully and bluster his way through a situation. Trump has shown that when things go bad in business, he blusters and walks away. Usually fails upward in business and personal relationships.
But war and running the Federal government are not like running a business. Trump, MAGA, and even many GOP don’t understand it. The consequences of being wrong when bombs are dropped and missiles are launched are much larger. The ripples of failing last longer and have much greater consequences.
Trump’s Iran war might not be over, though. While never admitting it, Trump will feel the sting of this limp victory and smell the stench of the critiques. It’s possible as he hurtles through more losses that he’ll use cover of any small provocations to drop more bombs on Iran.
Distracting, glorifying himself, and covering his ass is what his second term is all about.
It’s called Operation Enduring LOOK — SQUIRREL!
Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! was just a small part of it, to distract us from the Epstein files.
Operation Enduring LOOK — SQUIRREL! will probably offer a lot more distractions and claims in the very near future.
Like, say, a reflecting pool?
Michael Seidel, writer 