Bumbling into war

Led by buffoons and idiots we will once again find ourselves sending other kids off to fight another needless Middle Eastern war

Unconditional Surrender!

Yes, that’s what Field Marshal von Doofenshitz demanded from Iran via Truth Social a day ago. Ever since Israel began bombing their regional rival Trump has been eagerly cheering from the sidelines that his long promise to never start a new war had a massive asterisk on it that led to a footnote saying, “…unless it makes me look like a badass and we can totally win easy.”

I suppose you could argue we are assuming that’s what he is talking about in this post at least. It’s hard to really be sure since at any given moment he is complaining about the latest Saturday Night Live episode, a Fox News segment, or oddly world affairs.

It appears with growing certainty that Donald Trump is itching to get us into the fight against Iran and it is truly a perfect storm moment of disaster for the United States as a President who is completely addicted to image leads us to war being drawn out by a propaganda ecosystem eager to save him from every mistake he makes, a complete clownshow of a Cabinet, and an ally that knows that no matter what he does he can count on his friend to dive in front of him.

Why aren’t they menacing?

I am convinced you can trace this moment to Trump’s big birthday parade on Saturday. For over two months the country has been eagerly arguing and awaiting Trump’s big parade which was ostensibly for the 250th anniversary of the Army’s founding but clearly became about Trump;s 79th birthday.

He’s been itching for a big bad military parade since spending Bastille Day in France in 2017 and seeing the massive military parade staged for the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I and France’s revolution. He watched the pomp and circumstance of their full military participation and the idea that the U.S. could do it bigger and better hasn’t left his mushy brain since.

Somehow the Department of Defense and military leaders of the time were able to talk him off the ledge in that first term where he still thought that he needed adults around him. His second term has been marked by his mastery of removing any actual intelligent or ethical leaders from his Administration so the barriers were much lower this time and he pounced on the Army’s 250th as a good moment to realize his fantasy.

I won’t go into too many details but it’s probably not great when the event becomes a meme about squeaky tanks, empty bleachers, and a grouchy birthday boy.

Reports are already coming out that Trump was furious at Pete Hegseth and the Army for staging an embarrassing event that many describe as “could have been an email.” Yesterday his biographer Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast that Trump was especially angry that the troops didn’t look “menacing” and were having too much fun waving to the crowd and…shockingly…smiling.

Speaking with The Daily Beast’s podcast Monday, Wolff revealed that Trump was “pissed off at the soldiers.” He reportedly wanted the troops to appear “menacing,” but instead they were “having a good time,” per Wolff.

“He’s accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face,” the Fire and Fury author told the podcast.

One thing that Trump can’t stand is being made fun of or looking weak.

Cue Benjamin Netanyahu and Fox News.

He likes big booms

One thing that Trump loves more than anything is good TV. Everything in his life is carefully orchestrated for the visual medium he grew up in as a character portraying “Donald Trump.” He knows the American addiction to TV better than few politicians in history.

Are we really securing the border with “thousands of troops?” No, but there is video of Marines arriving in armored vehicles and V-22’s. Are we really grabbing criminal immigrants first? No, but there is video of Kristi Noem decked out in full combat regalia accompanying ICE agents against “gangs.” It’s all a show and he is the star and Executive Producer.

So, what changed his mind? It began on Friday before his big parade according to deep reporting from the New York Times.

But as the night wore on and the Israelis landed a spectacular series of precision strikes against Iranian military leaders and strategic sites, Mr. Trump began to change his mind about his public posture.

When he woke on Friday morning, his favorite TV channel, Fox News, was broadcasting wall-to-wall imagery of what it was portraying as Israel’s military genius. And Mr. Trump could not resist claiming some credit for himself.

In phone calls with reporters, Mr. Trump began hinting that he had played a bigger behind-the-scenes role in the war than people realized. Privately, he told some confidants that he was now leaning toward a more serious escalation: going along with Israel’s earlier request that the United States deliver powerful bunker-busting bombs to destroy Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordo.

So, now we are talking about getting involved and even hinting that we will. It has left MAGA world split as hardline ‘America First’ voices like Rep. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Green align with Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon against old school hawks like Senator’s Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, and the Fox News cheerleaders to go in because it will be “easy.”

No, really. Last night during an insane rant on Fox, constant fool Mark Levin said…well….this,

The Clown Car Cabinet

Circling back to Trump’s anger at Pete Hegseth, his incompetent and bumbling Secretary of Defense, highlights just how monumentally unprepared we are to go to war with a major power that is an ally of Russia thanks to Trump’s hiring of the most idiotic people on Earth to run our national security.

Hegseth has been embroiled in constant controversy and the White House recently leaked they can’t get anyone with any respect to work for him as an advisor or deputy. Now we hear that Hegseth is deferring much of the push in the region to Central Command leader General Michael Kurilla. Politico just reported this dynamic this morning.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given an unusual level of authority to a single general in the latest Middle East crisis — an Iran hawk who is pushing for a strong military response against the country.

U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Erik Kurilla has played an outsized role in the escalating clashes between Tehran and Israel, with officials noting nearly all his requests have been approved, from more aircraft carriers to fighter planes in the region.

The pugnacious general, who is known as “The Gorilla,” is overruling other top Pentagon officials and playing a quiet but decisive role in the country’s next steps on Iran, according to a former and current defense official, a diplomat, and a person familiar with the dynamic.

Hegseth’s apparent deference to Kurilla undermines the image the Pentagon chief has sought to project of a tough-talking leader who has vowed to reduce the influence of four-star generals and reassert civilian control.

“If the senior military guys come across as tough and warfighters, Hegseth is easily persuaded to their point of view,” said the former official. Kurilla “has been very good at getting what he wants.”

Then we have our odd Director of National Intelligence. Last week in a bizarre twist, Tulsi Gabbard put out a mind bogglingly weird video warning of the dangers of nuclear war where she waxed philosophically about the aftermath of the atom bombs we dropped on Japan over sad puppy music and images out of a dystopian nightmare.

Many think it was ostensibly aimed at Russia but its also increasingly likely it was a subtle hint about getting involved with Iran.

Screenshot from a really bizarre video from Tulsi Gabbard

She has reported numerous times that Iran is not at all close to producing nuclear weapons as Israel and Trump have repeatedly insisted. When asked about her assessment on his way back early from the G7 conference Trump dismissed her opinion saying he doesn’t care what she thinks. Reports are that she has not been invited to national security council meetings discussing Iran options.

Yes, the head of our entire intelligence machine has been left out of the decision making process on going to war with a country of 91 million people that is twice the size of Iraq and sits on top of key strategic terrain for the entire world.

Meanwhile we have a battalion of Marines on the ground in L.A. They are announcing activations of more National Guard soldiers from three states to help ICE and it’s malevolent campaign to deport immigrants.

Our forces continue to deal with the Houthis after the last completely mismanaged air campaign that, if reports are true, drained our reserve of guided bombs, missiles, and even several Predator drones. It was just a month ago that we lost two F-18’s literally falling into the Red Sea off of aircraft carriers.

Oh yeah…we sent 6,000 soldiers and literally hundreds of combat vehicles and aircraft to Washington D.C. to give the Commander-in-Chief a chubby.

Our military is stretched thin by any measure.

No new wars!

All of this flies in the face of Trump’s constant promises that he would be a peacemaker and not start any new wars. That campaign plank was often cited even by the “Abandon Harris” movement of far left activists as a reason to walk away from her as a “warmonger.”

Now he’s a huge fan of war but he forgets one key aspect. No war has been won in history using airpower alone. Japan only surrendered after we had fought for four years to bring our troops to her doorstep and obliterated her military and national will to fight.

Contrary to Mark Levin’s hazy memory, Iraq was not defeated in 43 minutes. I was on the march to Baghdad where our undersized invasion force had to fight our way into the capital and then scramble to occupy the entire country. Unconditional surrender has never happened without boots on the ground.

Never.

I say this with all my heart. We must not join Netanyahu’s war any more than we already have. Sending American forces into this conflict will light a fire that has unimaginable global impact with no end in sight.

I’ve seen how this ends. I lost friends and years of my life to an endless war and I don’t want to send my kids to another one. I am not some kind of liberal peacenik who hates the troops and America.

On the contrary, I love this country with all my heart and I love our military service members too much to condemn them to yet another war that the idiots who started it will never sacrifice to fight.

Ted Cruz’s kids won’t be going to Iran. No member of Donald Trump’s family has served in the military. Jesse Watters and Mark Levin won’t be uncomfortable for even a minute.

But my son-in-law who remains in uniform will. My friends whose kids are serving will. The same poor ‘suckers and losers’ that Trump mocks in closed doors will fight, die, and spend a lifetime dealing with.

Enough is enough.

Pick up that phone folks. We aren’t done yet.