Trump once claimed that his "plan is to get out of endless wars, to bring our soldiers back home, to not be policing agents all over the world." Years ago, Trump even claimed that Obama would start a war with Iran in order to win re-election (but Obama didn't). He obviously was insinuating that Obama would need such a war in order to get another term in office. This was a reminder of the “Wag the Dog” strategy of leaders starting wars in order to detract attention from their own unpopularity.
Now, things are going bad here at home, Trump's approval ratings are low and disapproval ratings are high, and now, war suddenly breaks out in 2020, the election year. Thousands of American troops are, once again, on their way to the Middle East, as another war apparently looms.
Wag the Dog, anyone?
By now, we also know that in war, truth is the first casualty. Those who create wars, and those who support the wars, tend to cleanse the reality of war, to curb the inevitable rough edges. Here is a great quote on exactly this by Chris Hedges, which I think is telling (see link below):
If we really saw war, what war does to young minds and bodies, it would be impossible to embrace the myth of war. If we had to stand over the mangled corpses of schoolchildren killed in Afghanistan and listen to the wails of their parents, we would not be able to repeat clichés we use to justify war. This is why war is carefully sanitized. This is why we are given war's perverse and dark thrill but are spared from seeing war's consequences. The mythic visions of war keep it heroic and entertaining…
The wounded, the crippled, and the dead are, in this great charade, swiftly carted offstage. They are war's refuse. We do not see them. We do not hear them. They are doomed, like wandering spirits, to float around the edges of our consciousness, ignored, even reviled. The message they tell is too painful for us to hear. We prefer to celebrate ourselves and our nation by imbibing the myths of glory, honor, patriotism, and heroism, words that in combat become empty and meaningless.”
I always suggest to men of fighting age who approve wars to go ahead and sign up. They usually laugh, but if I press, their smiles falter, and they stumble on words. My guess is that the popularity of war would dramatically decrease if those in favor of war actually had to be the ones going to the front lines and fighting the war.
Most likely, the same would be true today, although perhaps maybe…just maybe…younger people are not so enthusiastic about the present leadership in Washington. That does not necessarily mean that they will disapprove of these actions that seem to be leading inevitably to yet another war in the Middle East – again, something that Trump promised he would make sure to avoid once he was in the Oval Office. So much for yet another Trump campaign promise.
Still, the campaign against any truth, and to sanitize the war, and to make the justification seem more real, Vice-President Mike Pence linked Iran to the 9/11 attacks.
Ah, we probably all remember when the George W. Bush administration did exactly that to Iraq, and cited their definite knowledge – absolutely no doubt about it! – that Iraq possessed a mass arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s) that required an urgent response without any delay. We went ahead and invaded Iraq, against the wishes of the rest of the world. And the war lasted longer than Donald Rumsfeld’s prediction that it would last six days or six weeks, because it actually lasted well over one decade. It was also far from the clear cut victory that everyone in the administration insisted it would be, and it was extremely costly, both in terms of human lives, as well as America’s reputation around the world. Oh, and one other way that it was costly: it literally cost us trillions of dollars.
Now, here we go again. We are led to believe that Iran was about to launch an imminent attack against the world’s leading superpower, to attack American interests. Funny, because they have no history of doing so over the course of over four decades, during which time Iran and the United States have always been at loggerheads.
Trump said, “We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.
Right. Because the best way to avoid a war is to openly kill another country’s leading general, right?
One cannot help but think about events now over one century ago, when an actual World War was launched after the assassination of a world leader, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which is widely regarded as the cause for the outbreak of what was then called the “Great War.”
Trump is claiming that he is not starting a war, because after all, what else can he say? He promised not to get the country involved in these kinds of ridiculous wars. But again, he has been impeached, and his approval ratings are extremely low. More people favored him being removed from office than having his job saved, and more Americans disapprove of the job that he is doing than approve.
One method that has been tried and true for politicians struggling with low poll numbers has been to get the country involved in a war. Lyndon B. Johnson had Vietnam, and he easily won re-election. George W. Bush started the Iraq war, and initially, at least, it helped him keep his office, even if his approval ratings took a serious dip shortly into his second term. And now, Donald Trump has launched what amounts to a war against Iran. After all, Iranian leaders have promised serious retaliation, which is no surprise. I mean, seriously, most countries would respond in some way after being outright attacked like that, with another world leader taking credit for killing one of their generals.
Of course, we know that the United States seems to get involved in these wars in the Middle East because it is an oil-rich region. Iran has oil. In fact, a huge new oilfield was just discovered in November, as reported by the BBC. President Hassan Rouhani announced that a new oil field would increase the country’s production of oil by one-third.
In the light of that news, as well as this being the big election year, it hardly seems surprising that this new war with Iran has started. Trump supporters who were so opposed to war seem to have forgotten about their former opposition to such conflicts, much like they also have forgotten about their outrage at the increases in the national debt and budget deficit, both of which have increased dramatically under Trump.
European allies are protesting, calling fouls, and trying to get both sides to cool off a bit. Most of the rest of the world is opposed to these American actions. It feels almost like a replay of the whole Iraq war fiasco, which at the time, Trump was opposed to.
Now, there is money to be made in an oil-rich region, once again. And so we are off to war, once again. Right on time for the election year.
It seemed to me that the people who support this conflict the most – Republicans and loyal Trump supporters – should be the ones signing up and leading the way to show how serious they are in their patriotism and the cause of advancing freedom. Surely, we will see the red hats lining up at military recruitment centers across the country to enlist, and go off to Iran to go ahead and fight, putting themselves in harm’s way in order to preserve American freedom against this urgent threat to the United States.
Any takers among Trump supporters? Anyone? Maybe Trump’s sons could remedy their father’s record of bone spurs, and show how brave and patriotic they really are? Maybe some other wealthy Trump supporters with a high public profile could do it? Or perhaps the numbers of enlisted men and women will swell, as Trump supporters come from far and wide to put their money where their mouth is and ship off to Iran?
No?
What a shocker.
It reminds me of a quote by Eugene V. Debs, which seems like as good a way as any to end this particular blog entry on:
“Let the capitalists do their own fighting and furnish their own corpses and there will never be another war on the face of the earth.”
Here are the articles I used in writing this particular blog entry about the seemingly inevitable new war with Iran that Trump just launched:
Trump predicted Obama would attack Iran to 'get elected' In a 2011 video, Donald Trump predicted a 'weak and ineffective' President Obama would attack Iran in order to win a second term. Trump followed this notion up at other points in 2011 and 2012., Jan. 3, 2020:
Pence incorrectly links Iran to 9/11 while trying to justify America's assassination of the country's top general by John Haltiwanger, January 3, 2020:
Donald Trump quote about ending the cycle of getting United States involved in endless wars was taken from this source: Donald Trump wants to end endless wars. Flirting with isolationism won't get him there. By The Editorial Board, USA TODAY, November 1, 2019:
More than 200,000 U.S. troops are stationed worldwide, serving to safeguard U.S. security and interests by preserving a stable world order: Our view
'World War III' Trends as Hawks Rejoice at Trump Decision to Assassinate Iranian Military Leader by Jake Johnson, staff writer, January 03, 2020: "Hawks are celebrating Soleimani's assassination not because they believe it weakened Iran...But because they believe we have passed an irreversible point of escalation."
Here is the link to the BBC article mentioned above about new oil fields recently being discovered in Iran: Iran oil: New field with 53bn barrels found – Rouhani by BBC News, 10 November 2019:
Quote from Chris Hedges:
Chris Hedges and Quotes and Quotable Quote from Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/411659-if-we-really-saw-war-what-war-does-to-young
President Trump Once Said Obama Would Attack Iran to Get Reelected | News 4 Now
Video Clip:
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