I check in once a day with my dear friend in Israel. He and his family already live in a volatile region of the world and what Trump did in the wee hours of Saturday morning has made day-to-day life in Israel and the Middle East even more fraught with peril.
Trump and Hegseth live in this imaginary world that never existed, but one we all thought existed after 9/11. It’s a world in which people believe the strategy to kill off a terrorist group is to take out its head and then everything will be all right. That didn’t happen in Afghanistan. That didn’t happen in Iraq. And it didn’t happen when Osama bin Laden was killed, although I cheered when he died. However, I knew it didn’t mean the hour of freedom was at hand for the thousands living under al Qaeda’s watchful eye or the multitude of terrorist organizations modeled after it.
So if you’re thinking Trump just solved ME peace again (remember he did that just a few months ago as well, saying Iran’s nuclear capabilities were “totally obliterated”) you haven’t been paying attention for a very, very long time. The newest power vacuum in the ME has just been created by the trigger-happy boys in charge of America’s firepower. When Hegseth talks about the war and American strategy, which there is none, one can truly hear that he is a stupid individual. Yes, SNL joked that he might have borrowed his Iran strategy from a bad GameCube game, but the really sick part is that it’s entirely believable. He is a stupid, boneheaded, shadow of a man. He truly makes me feel embarrassed to be a part of this country. And his boss, well, he clearly did not think about the repercussions of a regional war with Iran. He has put that part of the world under a blowtorch and now we have to watch it burn, we have to come to terms with the fact that we are responsible for blowing up a girls school, and we must prepare ourselves for what comes next. No matter how bad the next iteration of Iranian rulers are, Americans in power must say we did that.
The Board of Peace must also say we did that, when rockets fall onto Israel, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, and the UAE, killing citizens. Or when US troops die, as they already have in this, only the latest, disastrous adventure in the ME.
My friend in Israel sends me videos of air raid sirens right before he and his family huddle into a safe room. He has sent me a video of an impact crater in his neighborhood. Again and again he says it’s not normal to live like this. But he is also getting to know Trump’s motivations, mentioning they are for his own financial benefit and that he’s acting like a man who is running away from something, read Epstein files. Again and again, I say I’m sorry. I added this morning, on behalf of the USA and everyone who voted for Trump, I am sorry.
It won’t be the last time I say this. I look forward to the day when more people say it too.
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