The treat if war is another example of Trump trying to divert attention away from his disastrous parade and to make him look like a strong leader. Another TACO moment.
Please look at the roster of war mongering leaders who have rattled a sword against Iran. Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, McCain, Bolton, Rumsfeld, James Baker, George Schultz. Add to that Trump and (soon, no doubt) Rubio.
Our only path to stopping this is public outcry. Support our elected officials and urge them to speak out. Call your own representatives (even if GOP) and voice your opposition.
Even if this is a Trump ploy to distract from the general shitshow of a government he runs, this could easily get out of hand.
For Trump, has there been any meaningful consequence for any of his (too numerous to count) horrible actions and decisions, from this presidency or his previous one? No. In fact, between the immunity provided by SCOTUS and the laissez-faire attitude of the GOP majority, it’s as if Trump is even more cushioned from consequence than ever.
All we can do as Dems is keep the pressure up. Our elected officials are speaking out, taking stands, and fighting back. We are out of power, so the courts and public opinion are our only avenues, but we are making use of both.
Of course, we’re Democrats, so there’s a lot of whining and complaining about exactly how things are said, whose podcast has what guests, or who is (gasp) being reasonable.
We lost power in SCOTUS, the Senate, the House and the Oval Office by thinking we’re smarter than the opposition, making it plain we admire our own high moral tone, and marshaling our party around the organizing principles of Krazy Kat.
We need to support consistent, unrelenting pressure of good messages and many diverse messengers.
A corollary of the argument against it has to be spending/deficit related. The prospect of adding trillions to the debt for a war no one wants that won’t keep us safe could be enough to sink the already fragile OBBB and splinter the GOP coalition of deficit hawks and defense hawks.
I won't pretend to know a lot about Iran or about war, but I have a gut feeling that this is quite possibly the worst thing the US admin could do. With trump at the helm of his ship of fools, and Iran at or near nuclear proficiency, I'm pretty sure we're fucked.
It was bad enough when we had smart (or at least educated) people at the helm. I don't think the current decision-makers (either side) gives a single fuck about whether they end human existence. In the meantime, the Palestinian genocide continues full force. And when I think that both atrocities stem from the same Israeli/United States alliance, I'm appalled, horrified, and pained beyond hope.
While it seems to me that pre-emptive wars focused on regime change in the middle east always go poorly…if my read of history is correct…CHOOSING to go to war is one of the reasons we need a thoughtful experienced executive team and we need congressional consent. The framers of the constitution weren’t idiots.
So the issue here isn’t whether the US should or should not go to war. It’s confronting the fact that Trump makes decisions on 1) Impulse and 2) Emotion. He will decide to go to war like most of us decide to buy a new toy. And at least most of us will feel buyers regret if the decision is wrong – Trump’s psyche doesn’t permit even that. I’d feel a little better if he had competent advisors. Instead, we have Hegseth rocking back and forth in his chair, swatting at flies and wondering who is out to get him, Gabbard whose occasionally decent advice is ignored (with Trump saying he couldn’t care less what she says), no National Security Advisor that I can name, leaving us with, essentially an impulsive, narcissistic, unstable chief executive making the ultimate decision – one that will cost lives, create chaos, possibly bog the US down for years and cost – yeah – trillions. WT Actual F?
Expect Bibi is tempting Donald with 'it's just a few air strikes', but, of course, it may not end there. Iran likely to retaliate, and Donald and his 'team' can't competently navigate the blowback, likely to feature noticeably higher gas prices and market turmoil.
Given the loathsomeness of Donald, Bibi, and the Iranian regime, hard to decide what to hope for here.
Didn’t Trump help get us into this mess? His ignorance of foreign relations (and his persistent envy of Obama’s intelligence and popularity) caused him to get rid of the Iran nuclear deal. And now, he is issuing threats and relying on the advice of a wholly incompetent Cabinet. We are so screwed!
This is a case study in how not to deal with Trump. Trump is doing what Trump always does: taking credit for solving a problem. In this instance, he didn't first cause the problem, unless you consider that he tore up Obama's agreement with Iran, but he is absolutely jumping on the bandwagon. Israel's attack on Iran was daring, brave, surgical, and wildly successful. Trump wants credit for something he really had nothing to do with. He most likely knew about the operation before it happened, but this was all done by Israel. With the exception of needing the US to hit the underground base where Iran's main nuclear base is located, there is nothing for the US to do. We are all up in arms again because Trump wants to sound tough and wants to take credit for someone else's work. And we are clutching our pearls like fools, once again making Trump the center of attention in an instance when he was clearly on the sidelines.
I could (almost) live with Trump the dove. I could (almost) live with Trump the hawk. But Trump the no-compos-mentis whirligig is making me crazy. I (almost) wish Henry II's famous directive about Thomas à Becket didn't keep coming to mind.
I hope you are right, but I have no faith in the ability of anyone in the GOP to stick to her/his guns if he pulls off anything that remotely resembles success--even in the short term.
100%. And to distract from his absolutely humiliating performance at the G7--what a complete disaster! Will there be any fall out from that?
The treat if war is another example of Trump trying to divert attention away from his disastrous parade and to make him look like a strong leader. Another TACO moment.
Please look at the roster of war mongering leaders who have rattled a sword against Iran. Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, McCain, Bolton, Rumsfeld, James Baker, George Schultz. Add to that Trump and (soon, no doubt) Rubio.
Our only path to stopping this is public outcry. Support our elected officials and urge them to speak out. Call your own representatives (even if GOP) and voice your opposition.
Even if this is a Trump ploy to distract from the general shitshow of a government he runs, this could easily get out of hand.
For Trump, has there been any meaningful consequence for any of his (too numerous to count) horrible actions and decisions, from this presidency or his previous one? No. In fact, between the immunity provided by SCOTUS and the laissez-faire attitude of the GOP majority, it’s as if Trump is even more cushioned from consequence than ever.
All we can do as Dems is keep the pressure up. Our elected officials are speaking out, taking stands, and fighting back. We are out of power, so the courts and public opinion are our only avenues, but we are making use of both.
Of course, we’re Democrats, so there’s a lot of whining and complaining about exactly how things are said, whose podcast has what guests, or who is (gasp) being reasonable.
We lost power in SCOTUS, the Senate, the House and the Oval Office by thinking we’re smarter than the opposition, making it plain we admire our own high moral tone, and marshaling our party around the organizing principles of Krazy Kat.
We need to support consistent, unrelenting pressure of good messages and many diverse messengers.
A corollary of the argument against it has to be spending/deficit related. The prospect of adding trillions to the debt for a war no one wants that won’t keep us safe could be enough to sink the already fragile OBBB and splinter the GOP coalition of deficit hawks and defense hawks.
I won't pretend to know a lot about Iran or about war, but I have a gut feeling that this is quite possibly the worst thing the US admin could do. With trump at the helm of his ship of fools, and Iran at or near nuclear proficiency, I'm pretty sure we're fucked.
It was bad enough when we had smart (or at least educated) people at the helm. I don't think the current decision-makers (either side) gives a single fuck about whether they end human existence. In the meantime, the Palestinian genocide continues full force. And when I think that both atrocities stem from the same Israeli/United States alliance, I'm appalled, horrified, and pained beyond hope.
While it seems to me that pre-emptive wars focused on regime change in the middle east always go poorly…if my read of history is correct…CHOOSING to go to war is one of the reasons we need a thoughtful experienced executive team and we need congressional consent. The framers of the constitution weren’t idiots.
So the issue here isn’t whether the US should or should not go to war. It’s confronting the fact that Trump makes decisions on 1) Impulse and 2) Emotion. He will decide to go to war like most of us decide to buy a new toy. And at least most of us will feel buyers regret if the decision is wrong – Trump’s psyche doesn’t permit even that. I’d feel a little better if he had competent advisors. Instead, we have Hegseth rocking back and forth in his chair, swatting at flies and wondering who is out to get him, Gabbard whose occasionally decent advice is ignored (with Trump saying he couldn’t care less what she says), no National Security Advisor that I can name, leaving us with, essentially an impulsive, narcissistic, unstable chief executive making the ultimate decision – one that will cost lives, create chaos, possibly bog the US down for years and cost – yeah – trillions. WT Actual F?
Trump is the Pandora's Box of our time.
Expect Bibi is tempting Donald with 'it's just a few air strikes', but, of course, it may not end there. Iran likely to retaliate, and Donald and his 'team' can't competently navigate the blowback, likely to feature noticeably higher gas prices and market turmoil.
Given the loathsomeness of Donald, Bibi, and the Iranian regime, hard to decide what to hope for here.
I feel dirty being in sync with MAGA on anything. brb going to take a shower.
Didn’t Trump help get us into this mess? His ignorance of foreign relations (and his persistent envy of Obama’s intelligence and popularity) caused him to get rid of the Iran nuclear deal. And now, he is issuing threats and relying on the advice of a wholly incompetent Cabinet. We are so screwed!
This is a case study in how not to deal with Trump. Trump is doing what Trump always does: taking credit for solving a problem. In this instance, he didn't first cause the problem, unless you consider that he tore up Obama's agreement with Iran, but he is absolutely jumping on the bandwagon. Israel's attack on Iran was daring, brave, surgical, and wildly successful. Trump wants credit for something he really had nothing to do with. He most likely knew about the operation before it happened, but this was all done by Israel. With the exception of needing the US to hit the underground base where Iran's main nuclear base is located, there is nothing for the US to do. We are all up in arms again because Trump wants to sound tough and wants to take credit for someone else's work. And we are clutching our pearls like fools, once again making Trump the center of attention in an instance when he was clearly on the sidelines.
I could (almost) live with Trump the dove. I could (almost) live with Trump the hawk. But Trump the no-compos-mentis whirligig is making me crazy. I (almost) wish Henry II's famous directive about Thomas à Becket didn't keep coming to mind.
Mapping American casualties in foreign wars as Trump rushes into another one
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/06/17/american-casualties-in-foreign-wars-map/
I hope you are right, but I have no faith in the ability of anyone in the GOP to stick to her/his guns if he pulls off anything that remotely resembles success--even in the short term.