Stone Age Bombing
A Dead Crippled Country Can Still Bomb People to Smithereens
I watched President Trump’s speech to the nation last night on the Iran War. The lies and boasts flew thick. According to Trump, America is winning and winning big. Under Joe Biden, America was “crippled” and “dead,” but Trump has reanimated the dead and healed it. (An obvious aside: Trump has a serious Christ complex.)
From dead and crippled, America is now the meanest, toughest, hombre in the valley. We take what we want and if you resist we’ll bomb you back to the Stone Age. As the New York Times reported: “We are going to hit them extremely hard,” Trump said. “Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”
The proud Iranian people, with Persia as one of the cradles of civilization—they mean less than zero to Trump. It doesn’t matter how many people have to die for Trump to feel like a winner.
A transcript of the speech is here. You’ll read about America’s “beautiful” B-2 bombers and how they’ve performed “magnificently.” You’ll read about America’s “warriors” and “heroes” who “laid down their lives” to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. You’ll read about their families who, even as they grieve the loss of loved ones in this war, are beseeching Trump to “Please, sir, please finish the job.” Every one of them, Trump added.
There were many reasons to be offended by Trump’s speech last night, but the idea of every grieving family member begging the president to “finish the job” by continuing to bomb and kill Iranians is certainly high on the list of offenses to morality and truth.
More than anything, what Trump’s speech told us is what he values. First, of course, himself and his identity as a man of action—a winner. The economy and the stock market. Oil and gas. Military might. And taking cheap shots at perceived opponents.
This sentence was especially revealing: The most violent and thuggish regime on earth would be free to carry out their campaigns of terror, coercion, conquest and mass murder from behind a nuclear shield.
Trump was referring to Iran here, but what he’s really saying is that only one violent and thuggish regime merits such a blank check on inflicting global violence protected by a nuclear shield. It’s not Iran’s, it’s his.
I watched for less than one minute, as he came across as more demented than ever. I did not expect any important info to be revealed, but I had a tiny hope that our ground troops would not go on this suicide mission. I grieve for all the people, on all sides, who will be killed.
Thank you for watching it and reporting on his blathering. I assume whatever he said last night was different than the random thoughts that passed between his ears earlier in the day, and what he'll say today - or maybe he'll talk about pens or his beautiful signature on dollar bills.
The only thing that seems certain is that the deployed ground forces are going in -whether on the coast or inland at Isfahan and other locations to attempt to seize the nuclear material. With a three-day weekend (and a closed stock market) tonight would seem to be a window for the start, except for the full moon. But I'm not sure if that would deter Trump and his drunken Minister of War Crimes.