Trump spent more time talking about the ballroom than about the servicemembers who lost their lives in his war.
When thousands of bombs are being dropped on another country, these vignettes may not be the most significant developments. But they reveal a disturbing component of Trump’s war: how cavalier it has been.
This has been reflected in how the purported reason (or reasons) for the war has been presented, in the absence of planning—or concern—for what comes after the Khamenei regime is smashed, and in, yes, how Trump and his aides talk about the destruction and death they have unleashed.
It’s been widely noted that Trump and his crew have not been able to get their story straight on why they launched this war. When Trump bizarrely announced the operation in a video made public in the middle of the night, he claimed he was “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” and he said to the Iranian people, “The hour of your freedom is at hand.” But there was no immediate danger posed by Tehran, and in the days following Trump’s announcement, his squad insisted this is not a regime change war.
Throughout the past week, there were conflicting and confusing statements from Trump and his national security team about why they initiated this assault. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters, "We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action" against Iran, and “we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces" by the Iranian regime. He added, “And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before [Israel] launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
Rubio was contending that Trump had to start this war because Israel was about to start this war. That sounded absurd. As if someone said, my buddy was about to punch this guy in the face, and I knew that if he did, that guy would punch me in the face, so I had to punch this guy in face first. This also made it appear as if Trump was forced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into the war, and that’s not a good look for an American president. Naturally, Trump publicly rejected Rubio’s explanation and said, “No, I might have forced their hand,” referring to the Israelis. So scratch that rationale from the president’s own national security adviser?
Asked about intelligence indicating Iran was a present danger to the United States, Hegseth said the intelligence showed that, during the talks with the Trump administration over Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Tehran was “not negotiating in good faith.” That’s quite different than intelligence stating the US was in real-time peril.
Yet this is sort of where Trump eventually landed. He said, “You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that." And on Wednesday, he went so far as to claim, “If we didn't hit within two weeks, they would've had a nuclear weapon. When crazy people have nuclear weapons bad things happen."
This was ridiculously false. There was no make-or-break point approaching. Last year, Trump claimed he had obliterated Iran’s nuclear program with a bombing raid. Now he was asserting that the program was back and only two weeks away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon.
No intelligence showed this. And there couldn’t be, given how outlandish this assertion was. Ultimately, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gave away the game when she said, “The president had a feeling, again, based on fact, that Iran was going to strike the US.” A feeling. This war was kick-started on a vibe.
It seems too obvious to mention, but in this case it ought to be said: It’s reckless to attack another country on a hunch. But that’s what Trump has admitted doing. And on Thursday, Hegseth added a Christian nationalist twist to the war, noting it was an “essential test” of “[w]hether our nations will be—and remain—Western nations with distinct characteristics—Christian nations under God.” So does this give the war a Crusades-ish justification?
Trump’s administration has also demonstrated it engaged in no serious planning for the postwar period. It was not prepared to evacuate Americans from countries that would become targets of Iranian retaliation. And it didn’t bother to think much about what would occur in Iran after the fall of the regime. Trump and his advisers explicitly rejected the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it. They recoiled at the idea of nation building, which didn’t fare well in Iraq and ultimately failed in Afghanistan.
This showed they didn’t give damn about what might transpire in Iraq—a country of 93 million people and four times the size of California—after it was pummeled by US and Israeli forces. Trump initially encouraged the Iranian people to revolt, but then he offered no support and dropped that exhortation. And his administration had no idea what to do about achieving stability in the country once it annihilated the ruling government. The attitude was, let there be chaos or whatever. If a better government emerges, we can take credit for that. If something worse ensues, we can say it’s not our fault. Trump was not going to assume responsibility for the consequences.
During a phone call with Trump on Thursday, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked what comes after the military operation. Trump replied, “Forget about next. They are decimated for a 10-year period before they could build it back.” This glib response shows that Trump and his posse haven’t considered what might happen within Iran and within the region should the country collapse, split into warring factions, or decide to seek revenge through terrorism or the production and use of a dirty bomb or other nuclear weapons. (At the start of Trump’s second stint, the White House shifted resources and agents from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which investigates international and domestic threats, to Trump’s immigration crackdown.)
Trump’s overall approach is that he doesn’t care. Not about the American people. He didn’t bother to inform them of his intentions or establish a public discourse, and he bypassed Congress, violating the Constitution. Not about the Iranian people. His message to them is you’re on your own. Not about other nations in the region. He says to them, good luck, guys. Not about US allies. He didn’t engage them before taking this impulsive action. When asked whether Americans should fear retaliatory attacks at home, he replied, “I guess so.” He added: “Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.”
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