Trump’s new war
It’s official. Five months into his first term, the “peace” candidate, the “no new wars” candidate, has bombed Iran. Trump crows about it in a post on “Truth” Social where he says in part, “a full payload of BOMBS has been dropped on the primary target, Fordow.” The “bunker buster bomb” sorties included attacks on Natanz and Esfahan as well. These are locations where Iran is alleged to stockpile nuclear materials.
Trump’s obvious authoritarian relish is highlighted by his capitalisation of the word BOMBS. The so-called anti-war so-called “president” has also said that it’s up to Iran to instigate peace.
Iran has other ideas. Iranian state television has announced that all personnel and nuclear materials were evacuated from those three sites and placed in a “secure location.” They have also said that every American currently in Iran is now at risk.
Whether or not the sorties destroyed Iranian nuclear capabilities, or if Iran did indeed successfully evacuate those sites, is an open question. Trump says no, Iran says yes. Both are pathological liars.
My provisional guess is Iran is lying. Evacuation of those sites would require a huge undertaking that would have necessitated obvious movements easily noted by satellite. But that guess is predicated on the belief that only a crazy man would bomb an empty site, and, well, fill in the blank.
So in the final analysis we don’t know for absolute certainty, because, and I’m sorry to have to say this, we are dealing with two governments that are notoriously insane. But, all things being equal, does it really matter? America is now at war with a country that has an equally insane ally, Russia, with more nukes than America and hypersonic Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles. The real question is, what will that other notoriously insane government do in response?
And of course the war Trump needlessly embroiled America in is illegal. Only Congress can start a war with another country. So what else is new? Trump breaks six federal laws every day before breakfast.
So America’s new woes are now quintupled, compounded by all the other woes, created by a disastrous administration that has sowed more chaos in five months than anyone thought possible. The convicted felon who claimed that only he can prevent another world war may very well have just started World War III.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.