Americans need protection from President Trump who took America to war with Iran based on advice from a foreign leader, Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi), obsessed lifelong with enlisting America in defeating Iran. Trump disregarded advice from his correctly-skeptical U.S. military and diplomatic advisors. Because blind loyalty trumps competence in Trump world, he unnecessarily wasted hundreds of billions to fail all his war goals just to make sea navigation more risky and expensive. Trump succeeds in moving geopolitical tectonic plates, but not in America’s favor. Stuck in damage control mode, Trump struggles to extract a face-saving win.
The ceasefire (expiring on April 22) could lead to peace. Although Iran wants and has planned for a long war to teach America a lesson and lift decades of punishing sanctions, Iran held out an April 18 olive branch by opening Hormuz for the ceasefire’s remainder.
Trump responded by ignoring Iran’s face-saving offer by sending more troops and threatening civilization-ending war crimes if Iran rejected his “deal.” Trump escalated: blockading, attacking and intercepting an Iranian cargo ship. Iran branded that an “act of war,” warning that the window for negotiations was closing. Iran believes that time is on their side because Americans will feel the inflationary pain of a long war, especially as China and Japan massively dump U.S. treasuries.
Trampling his campaign promises, Trump’s Iran War is now a dangerous circus that risks nukes while all arms control treaties (hard-won by citizens’ successful 1980’s Nuclear Freeze movement) have expired, leaving no discernible checks on U.S. first-strike nukes in our deeply-purged military and civilian systems. Americans’ security guarantees– governmental checks-and-balances–has failed, or Trump would already be impeached for high crimes and corruption. Blame the current Republican trifecta, but Democrats likewise failed to curb a demented President Biden who revived the Cold War with Russia through NATO expansion that similarly risked nuclear war while also supplying, (instead of halting) Israel’s genocide on Gaza. Congress oversaw and overlooked.
Americans feel our failed system. Add Trump, either demented and trapped in delusions or sincerely wildly panicking. Factor in captivity of our government to Israel’s project. Americans painfully realize their sacrifices: no universal healthcare or rebuilding America while Israel regularly extracted billions for Mideast wars from Iraq (post-9/11) to Iran. Israel’s rising injustices also inversely curtailed Americans’ cherished free speech to criticize Israel under the “antisemitic” guise. Trump, devoid of empathy, exhibits unconcern about the consequences of his aggressive policies on everyone and everything.
Trump sent JD Vance to Islamabad with no agency to negotiate. Iran’s Speaker of Parliament and Foreign Minister, Abbas Arakchi, highly prepared negotiators with 120 detailed pages, wondered who runs America. Vance called Trump 12 times to ensure his decisions complied with Israel, the apparent master of the American Empire and U.S. military (now employed as Israel’s mercenary army.) U.S. leaders are apparently beholden to ensure Israel’s progress toward its Mideast land-lusting Greater Israel project, demonstrated by Israel’s ceasefire-breaking attacks on Lebanon.
As Americans’ support for Israel dissipates, Bibi knows this is his last chance to defeat Iran to break it into ethnic divisions despite millennia of Iranian unity and tolerance for diverse thriving religions.
All this demonstrates that we are hostages to Trump’s duplicity and unprecedented incompetence like his wild, improvised uranium retrieval-gone-wrong escapade and his Iranian port blockade to create some “win” by starving China of oil. Meanwhile, Trump distracts by dueling with Chicagoan Pope Leo, posting AI Jesus impersonations– – a level of blasphemy and megalomania that even Hitler dared not. Leo wins here; he is grounded in New Testament peacemaking–not “soft” on Trump’s war crimes. Vance also overstepped.
Trump could do something sincerely Christlike–sacrifice himself by humbly accepting defeat to save mankind’s modern economy. Some Americans may forgive. If he doesn’t, the equally unlikely possibility is for his cabinet to “25th amendment” him or for this Congress to remove him. Most likely: citizens vote in a Democratic congress at November midterms followed by certain Trump impeachment.
It takes patriotic citizens and an electorate, then the task is to shape leaders to downsize the empire to grow a responsive democracy and accept our place in the multipolar world without destroying our world.
-Cynthia Munley
Salem
