And Now, War with Iran: Another Week, Another Crisis
". . . alas, without Democratic majorities in either chamber, it’s clear that Trump will have carte blanche to drive us over the cliff."
A week after the No Kings protests, Trump acted like the authoritarian we knew he was by taking the United States to war with Iran alongside Israel, defying international law and ignoring the war powers of Congress. To rub salt in the wound, he turned an act of war into an overtly partisan affair by choosing to only inform Republican lawmakers of his intent before sending in the B2 bombers. Now, on top of everything else, we are at war in the Middle East.
As Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out:
The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.
But, alas, without Democratic majorities in either chamber, it’s clear that Trump will have carte blanche to drive us over the cliff. While it’s too early to tell where this latest reckless action will take us, we do know several things, none of them good:
This decision was clearly made without any thorough analysis or strategic vision despite the fact that it has the potential to have generational consequences. The fact that there was dissent inside the administration illustrates how small the circle of people was who decided to bomb Iran. Ultimately, it was driven by two deeply narcissistic old men in Netanyahu and Trump who will certainly not live to see the long-term impacts that their policies will have on future generations destined live in the world they are creating.
Anyone who experienced the lead-up to the Iraq War with their eyes open should recognize the parallels to the present moment—the cakewalk will turn into a catastrophe. It seems the President, who opportunistically campaigned against “forever wars,” may have just heedlessly stepped into one of his own. Mission accomplished!
Most Americans don’t support entering Israel’s war against Iran. As G. Elliot Morris reports on his Substack, “In the immediate aftermath of this bombing, it is worth saying one thing very clearly: The American people do not support U.S. military intervention in Iran. At least, not right now.”
With only 25% supporting such action and 45% opposing it in a Washington Post poll and 16% supporting and 60% opposing in an Economist/You Gov poll, it’s clear that even a significant chunk of the MAGA base is not on board with Trump’s new war. Hence, the head-spinning retreat from aggressive bluster to recalibration in less than 24 hours. There will be a full-court-press propaganda campaign to change this. God knows what the coming weeks will bring. It won’t be pretty.
The dehumanization of the Muslim world will continue. Just as we have become utterly immune to the humiliation, suffering, and death of tens of thousands of Palestinians, Trump’s invocation of “civilization” versus the evil other is setting the table for us to turn a blind eye to any “collateral damage” that will come as the violence in the Middle East escalates.
As historian Richard Slotkin has written, this fits firmly in the American ideological framework of the Frontier myth that pits the white American settler against the savage other in a tale of redemption through violence. Edward Said would recognize it as a perfect manifestation of what he termed “orientalism,” pitting the civilized West versus the uncivilized world of Islam. Terror war prophet Samuel Huntington would be proud to see his “war of civilizations” heading toward some variety of a final solution. Hence, whatever happens, it’ll be ugly.
Anti-war = Anti-American? Buried underneath all the ideological maneuvering lies more death on top of a long history of killing. Death of an untold number of others, military or civilian—men, women, and children—who are sacrificed in the service of our grand narratives, are always guilty of being part of the savage, terrorist other, whether they are friends or foes of Hamas or the Iranian regime. Indeed, even domestic critics of American or Israeli policy are and will be demonized, marginalized, and/or persecuted quickly as anti-American enemies of the state.
Manufacturing Consent. We are living in a world framed by our leaders, as Noam Chomsky put it, full of worthy and unworthy victims, whether they be domestic or foreign. This serves both to pre-emptively justify all of Trump’s actions and to distract Americans from the growing list of unpopular Trump Administration policies.
As the polls slide, the chaos will continue and perhaps get worse.
The bottom line is this: it remains true that the only people who stand to benefit from this administration’s agenda here or in Iran are the very rich and the corporate world. The rest of us will suffer all the intentional and collateral damage.
As they say in basketball: don’t watch the ball, keep your eyes on their hips.