The War President

The War President

by Ruth A. Sheets

June 18, 2019

In the past week or so, Mr. Trump has been tweeting and calling out to reporters over the usual background helicopter that he does not want a war with Iran.  How do I know this is not true, you know, a lie?  Nothing related to Mr. Trump’s presidency in any way indicates that he does not want war with Iran, in fact, everything he has done cries out for a fight.  He has just been scanning to find the place he wants to strike.

Mr. Trump has been itching for a war since he was a candidate.  He couldn't make himself go to war back during Vietnam (bone spurs, you know), but he will be OK sending others to war.  

Mr. Trump’s hatred of Barack Obama is legendary.  His primary goal upon election was to destroy everything Mr. Obama had put into place.  One of those points was the agreement with Iran and numerous other nations to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.  He disregarded the agreement unilaterally for no reason.  Iran was clearly complying.  Everyone said so, but of course, he could not take any information from his intelligence community as he had already informed America that they were no good and essentially didn’t know anything.  His military leaders’ information was dismissed also (as were most of his defense/military advisors).  

It is close to irrelevant what the “intelligence community says now about who did or did not cause the attacks on the oil ships in the Gulf off Iran.  They have become so influenced by Mr. Trump and his constant lying and his demands for intense loyalty that it is hard to know just who they are for.  Then, I pretty much don’t care if Iran did the deed as it relates to the United States going to war.  We definitely do not need another war.  We haven’t even gotten past the last two and have no business starting one. 

Another indicator of Mr. Trump’s bellicose intentions is that the people with whom he has surrounded himself, particularly Bolton and Pompeo, are totally on board with war.  Iran is convenient, but I suspect any “little” war would do. 

Mr. Trump wants to be a war president.  I suspect he thinks that if he gets a war started, people will vote him in again so he can “finish” the war.  Alas, that might actually work.  It did for George W. Bush who was only slightly more competent than Mr. Trump at the job.  If we actually look at what happened, both Mr. Bush’s wars were still going on when he had to leave office due to term limits.  He never did finish them even with the extra time. 

It seems to me Mr. Trump is trying to demonstrate his manhood.  But, as the 8-year-old school yard bully he keeps proving himself to be, he has a long way to go,  and dragging a bunch of folks into a useless stupid war will not do it.  Somehow, he just brought his petty grudge-making, racism, misogyny, xenophobia,   and resentments into adulthood without the ability to reason or think critically about any of them.

So, if Mr. Trump and his nutty cronies Bolton and Pompeo want war, they should play with plastic soldiers and weapons on the oval office desk.  It will be fun and everyone will be better off.  A win-win!