Well here we are again, looking to become involved in a Middle East war that our own indecision has allowed to reach a critical point, only to be suckered into it by Israel and their warmonger leader Netanyahu. Now Fox News reports that Trump is reportedly considering using a nuke to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons facility. Today it was reported we moved B2 bombers to Asia. Just taking them for a test drive I guess. How we could once again be the only country in the history of the world to use a nuclear bomb on anyone, and for something as clearly politicized as this is truly remarkable. How can Congress just standby and let the President decide to drop a nuke because he thinks it would be a good idea? This is going to be America First how? All this will do is eventually unite the Islamic world against us, precipitating complete and total chaos. The madness coming out of Washington must be stopped. How does one really think the war with Iran will end with dropping a nuke? They will be looking for revenge for the rest of immemorial time, and we risk setting a clear precedent for Russia and China that using a nuke is ok for your political aims. Ukraine and Taiwan you can kiss your asses goodbye if this happens.
What kind of insanity have we unleashed in America? The man who blamed everyone for any war we were ever in now wants to start one of his own? Does he think war makes him look bigly? The Republican Congress feels no need to call out this for the insanity that it is? Pass a motion that clearly states Trump must have Congressional approval to use a nuke. Make him violate it and become a de facto war criminal. Where the hell is our leadership from either party? This is a place where I have to admit, I agree with Steve Bannon of all people, getting involved in ANOTHER Middle East war based on inadequate intelligence, war mongering politicians who won’t be actually involved in fighting and to bail the stupid Israeli Prime Minister out of a crisis of his own making is insane. How well have any of these adventures worked out for us? Can anyone name one we won?
Elsewhere in foreign policy, we have Trump being nominated for a Nobel prize by that most altruist of all places Pakistan. Obviously trying to gain favor at India’s expense given the recent spate of hostilities there. Pakistan, whose renegade scientists have done more to spread nuclear weapons technology than anyone AND who harbored Osama bin Laden for years while pretending they had no idea where he was. Yes surely an award from them is a strong segment of righteousness.
Meanwhile, Trump of course has had sparkling success ending the Ukrainian-Russia conflict even before taking office as promised. What did you say? It’s not over? You mean Vladimir Putin isn’t really a good guy who wants peace after all? Putin has played Trump like a fiddle, making him look like a complete ass, by requesting peace talks, then stiffing the talks, violating any and every “ceasefire” that has been initiated and in general sending a clear message he could care less what Donald Trump thinks about him. His goal remains complete domination of Ukraine, to be followed by then starting the same type of “border unrest” that is a precursor for “exploration incursions” into one of the European countries that will now be so much closer once Ukraine is totally under control. Somewhere like Estonia or Latvia or who knows? Trump’s reaction- blame Ukraine starting the war, for Russia invading them, a twisted logic that only a true sociopath could follow. If only Vlad would tell Donald how big and strong he looks then all could be well.
Onto the other side of the Middle East. Gaza, where the Israelis continue to conduct nothing less than war crimes against the civilian population, all under the illusion that a Hamas terrorist or two is probably hiding inside of that hospital or school or whatever they just bombed, with massive civilian casualties just “collateral damage”. Starving the population including hundreds of thousands of children by refusing to let food or other aid reach those in need. Topped off by the absolutely incredible musings of Trump and Netanyahu about relocating the entire population to somewhere else (ethnic cleansing anyone?) in order to turn Gaza into the Middle East Riviera. God knows everyone would want to vacation there. Does anyone in the Republican Party realize that we are supporting an ideologue that has been declared a war criminal by the World Court, and is under indictment in his own country for blatant corruption. He has to continue playing war to stay out of prison let alone maintain his grip on the country. What are we thinking? Is the Christian Right so blind to these abuses and crimes that there is no limit to what Israel can do without recrimination? To put this into their own words: What would Jesus Do? What would he think about the endless bombing, killing, devastation, starvation, pestilence that this whole operation is marked by? How does anyone think that this cycle in Gaza, or the one we are trying to make explode in Iran will make the world a safer place? That this behavior will lead to peace. All it leads to is endless wars that suck dollars, lives and spirit out of America as we prove over and over again how powerless we really are.
Meanwhile, back in Congress, who cares about the world coming unraveled and moving closer to a catastrophic war than in quite some time? The Republican budget plows on in the Senate. Increasing the deficit by trillions when we already spend more on interest than we spend on Medicare or Defense. When the program trustees for Social Security and Medicare just sent out an updated forecast in the last week saying both programs will be forced to trim benefits beginning in 2033! Eight years people. And we’re going to spend the first four of those handing out ongoing tax breaks to the rich and to Corporate America? Going ever deeper in debt. Daring the bond market to tell us we are reckless, financially irresponsible and quite frankly, just plain stupid. Doing nothing for the long term health of either program except for kicking people off of them. That is the only way any of the savings being claimed in Medicaid or Medicare materialize. Create idiotic paperwork for people to fill out that results in them giving up and losing their eligibility. Who cares if they don’t have medical insurance? Try and ignore the fact that all of us pay for those uninsured people when they show up at the ER without any way to pay. Maybe the next law will make it legal to just turn away the sick. That solves that. Why worry about a silly Hippocratic oath when you’ve already decided to ignore the Constitution? But then again, this law is from the same party that chooses to deny food stamps to people, blithely ignoring the fact that 1 in 7 children in America are nutrition deficient. America- where we grow more food than anywhere on the face of the earth has that many children who go hungry at least some of the time. How Christian is that?