How Soon We Forget
by John Lawrence
It looks like Trump is about to blunder us into another war ... this time with Iran. How soon we forget that George W Bush's splendid little war with Iraq essentially turned the country over to the democratic majority (we all support democracy, don't we) which just happened to be Shiites aligned with Iran which is also a Shiite country. Or is this too complicated for the average Congressman to understand? Now Trump is all excited about the fact that Iraq and Iran are buddies since he has gone out of his way to alienate Iran, first by opting out of the Iran nuclear deal supported by all the other signatories who just happen to be our allies. He couldn't have made a better move to increase tensions with Iran.
So now the war hawks are beating the drums to punish Iran after all the painful negotiations it took just to get the Iran nuclear deal which at least gave us and the world a platform to bring Iran in out of the cold and make it part of the civilized world. Nah, in effect, says Trump. We want Iran as our enemy, and we don't talk to or negotiate with enemies. Many years of diplomacy totally wasted thanks to Donald J Trump. Obama bent over backward as did many other diplomats to bring Iran to the table, and now Trump has kicked the table over spilling everyone's hard work and ordering the janitor to place it all in the garbage can. How can the American people support this?
The general that Trump ordered killed, Qasem Soleimani, had done a lot to get rid of ISIS in Iraq. This is how we reward him. But never mind, yesterday's friends can be today's enemies. Just think about the Kurds! It doesn't matter. Any enemy will do to justify the trillions of dollars we lavish on the military-industrial complex. Trump even puts sanctions on countries who buy their weapons from some other country than America. America First, you know. We even order our friends not to do deals that we don't like. So far nobody is taking the hint about Boeing's 737MAX. They will all be buying aircraft from France's Airbus from now on. Germany may be next on Trump's hit list . He's ordered them not to buy cheaper natural gas from Russia when they could buy more expensive natural gas from the US. Who do those Germans think they are? Economically collaborating with the enemy.
Instead of "The Art of the Deal" Trump is now fully qualified to write or have ghostwritten for him "How to Make the World a More Dangerous Place in Three Easy Lessons." I'm sure all his right wing base will make it a best seller even though it might take a billionaire to buy up most of the copies to make it so. I'm sure Iran has some nasty little secrets up their sleeve if Trump escalates. That's how wars start don't they. Tit for Tat. The point is that Trump needs a war so everyone can rally around him. Let's hoist the flag and his reelection will be secured.
