Online Reporter
FOR nearly a decade, the covenant between President Donald Trump and his “America First” base was simple: No more stupid wars.
That covenant, it turns out, was written in sand.
Saturday’s massive strike on Iran — killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — was sold to the American people as a decisive blow against terrorism. But in reality, it’s yet another stupid war that is claiming the lives of innocent human beings, including women and children.
“We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about,” Trump promised in December 2016. How we so wish those words were true. Unfortunately, Trump’s word doesn’t count for much.
The justification for the attack on Iran is the same old story — a nuclear threat is imminent. That Iran was on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons has the stale smell of 2003 about it. We were told the same thing about Iraq. We were told the same thing about Libya.
The other line is even more laughable. The Iranian people want to be liberated. Don’t the people always want to be “liberated” wherever America is involved? The people of Libya and Iraq all wanted to be liberated. Where are they now?
Even in the US, not everyone is gullible. The Hodgetwins, who have 3,5 million followers and have reliably backed Trump, told their audience that “freeing the people of Iran is not why I voted for Trump.”
The truth is that the United States is once again in the business of regime change. The “forever wars” are back in style. The president who campaigned on peace will govern as a war leader.
If this war is swift and clean and decisive, perhaps the discontent will fade. Perhaps Trump’s base will forgive the broken “America First” promise. Perhaps the midterms will proceed as planned.
But if this war drags on and American casualties mount, if the occupation expands, if the trillion-dollar price tag starts appearing on the national ledger, there will be hell to pay. And it will be paid by the leader who broke his word.
So, when will stupid wars end?
On Saturday, we got a very discouraging answer: Not yet. Not while the war machine still has fuel. Not while the neocons still have influence. Not while the president who promised peace discovers the seductive power of bombs.
When will stupid wars end? When we stop starting them.
Ask Americans. The fact that there wasn’t any revulsion from the American public against the pulverising of Palestinians by Israel with American helping hand, the kidnapping of the Venezuelan leader and his wife, the threat to annex Greenland and now the bombing of Iran clearly demonstrates that this is an American adventure, not necessarily Donald Trump’s. And the world condemns this action in whispers.