Recommendations of the Editorial team
As American and Israeli missiles fall on Tehran and the official goal is regime change, anyone who has bought into the obviously absurd idea of “Donald the Dove of Peace” that America will end its endless wars is likely to haunt a bloody version of remorse.
It was bullshit from the start. But that’s exactly what the Trump team sold so forcefully. Take the human nightmare Stephen Miller’s tweet a few days before the election: “Kamala = WWIII. Trump = Peace.”
The Trump team reads George Orwell’s “1984” like an instruction manual – so it’s no wonder that “war is peace.” The undermining of NATO and the dismantling of American alliances in favor of a “law of the strongest” foreign policy, executed by a sycophantic Kakistocracy, is a guarantee of more war amid autocratic power grabs worldwide – garnished with corrupt crony capitalism that profits from the chaos.
Anyone who believed Trump is partly to blame
Those who voted for Trump and believed him share responsibility for this. This also applies to self-proclaimed Palestinian peace activists who thought Biden and Harris were the worst possible scenario and didn’t even vote. No doubt we will see protests against the innocent victims of these attacks – but I would have far more sympathy for these people if they were also seen demonstrating against the estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Iranian lives that murderous mullahs have wiped out in the past few months alone.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been despotic and dangerous from its inception. The Iranian people have been oppressed and denied basic freedoms for decades. But this is an extreme example of war of choice. The American military strikes against Iran’s nuclear weapons facility last year were justified because Iran cannot be trusted with a nuclear weapon. That’s correct. But the much-vaunted complete destruction of these facilities apparently did not occur – at least that is the justification for this war.
And don’t forget: It was Trump who pulled the US out of an Obama-era agreement to prevent Iran’s nuclear weapons development – with the absurd argument that the imperfect anti-nuclear deal had to be blown up to prevent Iran from building a bomb. Iran’s subsequent advances toward the bomb then provided the rationale for these attacks. This is a self-inflicted state of emergency. Peace is war, war is peace.
People feel sorry for the compliant naïves in Congress who have convinced themselves that Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. They will probably excuse themselves by saying that he would have remained peaceful if he had received the award. Now this will serve as a cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t crawl. The self-proclaimed Chairman of the Board of Peace is now fed up with peace. While Rand Paul remains admirably consistent, Lindsey Graham pirouettes around the Senate chamber, and the lame-duck Speaker Mike Johnson is unable to defend the basic constitutional principles of separation of powers – let alone call for war authorization.
Regime change without a plan
Those already feeling overwhelmed by Operation Epstein Distraction can prepare for the inevitable next crisis: regime change without a plan for succession. That’s exactly what the Trump administration did in Venezuela – kidnapping socialist dictator Maduro but allowing his regime to remain in place in return for access to crude oil. The opposition remains in exile, and its leader María Corina Machado gave Trump her Nobel Peace Prize in exchange for literally nothing.
One of the clear lessons of history is: If you don’t win peace, you won’t win war. The Saudis and their Sunni allies will support the US against Iran because they hate the Shia Iranians (who, by the way, are not Arabs) – but beyond removing the Iranian regime, the plans for succession and stabilization still appear to be open. And given Trump’s inability to focus on anything beyond his immediate self-interest, solid plans are unlikely.
Perhaps a leader comes from the underground resistance; perhaps it is the Shah’s son, who, like many diaspora members in the United States, is awaiting restoration. The positive: Iran has a great history and a rich Persian culture. The Islamists do not represent the entire Iranian people – and never have.
But the path forward will be chaotic at best. It requires concentrated effort and civic engagement – not just a public invitation to private investors from Mar-a-Lago membership. If the United States now kidnaps and kills dictators without being directly provoked, it sets a dangerous precedent that will retaliate after demolishing America’s moral authority in the world.
The consequences of caravanning
It is the unforeseen effects, the cascades of consequences that cannot always be planned in advance, that drive most responsible statesmen to keep the peace. But Trump has the carefree attitude of a rich bully who can buy or bluff his way out of any mess. He is a fraud who has found his ultimate taker in his followers – people who convince themselves that a knee-jerk liar is the only man with the courage to tell the truth.
Perhaps the most prominent example is the vice president himself – a clever man who not long ago compared Trump to Hitler and a deadly drug, but then convinced himself that his career aspirations required an abrupt about-face. After all, less than two years ago, he endorsed Trump with this deadly serious column entitled “Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Don’t Start a Single War,” declaring: “He has my support in 2024 because I know he will not carelessly send Americans to fight abroad.”
