Iran is winning the war

Again, it’s the president’s war, not America’s.

Poll after poll after poll show a majority, sometimes a vast majority, does not want the US to be entangled in a Middle East war. There was no imminent threat. There are no clear goals. There is no exit plan. Donald Trump started a war for selfish reasons. It’s his, not ours. 

Yet the president won’t be held accountable for it. Five investigations, including one by the Pentagon, found that a US bomb landed on an elementary school in Iran on the first day of war, killing 150 girls. Perhaps it was a mistake. Perhaps it was unintended. (It was near a military target). If so, a commander-in-chief of noble spirit would accept responsibility. 

We don’t have one of those.

“It was done by Iran,” Trump said Sunday, incredibly.

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Over the weekend, American bombs destroyed a desalination plant in Iran, according to the Post. It was a vital piece of civilian infrastructure in the desert conditions of the Persian Gulf. Yet when Trump was asked about it Saturday, he told reporters he was unaware of the strike.

Back up and rewind: either the commander-in-chief does not know what the military under his authority is doing or he’s bald-faced lying about what the military under his authority is doing. Both are evidence of his desire for power without taking responsibility for it. 

Early last week, a reporter asked Trump if there was a worst-case scenario he had planned for in the war. Evidently, no such plan exists, because he guessed. “I guess the worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person.”

Three days later, the president declared that his war will end when Iran totally capitulates. "There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media site. “After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. 'MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).'”

But last night, the worst-case scenario happened, as Trump defined it. The son of Iran’s assassinated leader was chosen to be the next head of state. Mojtaba Khamenei, the Post said, is a “powerful regime insider deeply intertwined with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.” His elevation “sends a strong message of defiance to the Trump administration.” NDTV said the US killed not only his dad, but also his mom, his wife and one of his kids.

So Trump killed Khamenei’s family, but expects him to give up? That, in addition to his reportedly “serious interest” in sending troops to Iran, makes you wonder if he’s right in the head. When asked for his reaction to a possible ground invasion, retired General Paul Eaton, who trained combat troops in Iraq, said the first word that came to mind was “dementia.” 

Whether he’s demented or not, the outcome of Donald Trump’s war is the same – someone else will be responsible for it, not him. Fox host Maria Bartiromo raised the specter of the military draft with the White House press secretary. “Mothers out there are worried that we’re going to have a draft, that they’re going to see their sons and daughters get involved in [the war]. What do you want to say about the president’s plans for troops on the ground?” 

"It's not part of the current plan right now," Karoline Leavitt said.

"But the president, again, wisely keeps his options on the table." 

There hasn’t been a military draft in half a century, since the end of the Vietnam war, but a ground invasion that no one wants is so personally important to this president that turning the sons and daughters of America into cannon fodder is a sacrifice he's be willing to make. 

Just don’t ask for anything else, especially honor and respect for the war dead. At the Dover Air Force Base Sunday, during the dignified transfer of six service members, Trump wore one of his campaign caps with “USA” printed on the front and “45-47” on the side, both in gold. 

The image of the president's attempted merchandising during a ceremony memorializing the ultimate sacrifice was so insulting and outrageous that Fox “accidently” aired footage from a previous dignified transfer in which Trump's head is appropriately bare. In its apology, however, Fox did not air the correct footage, nor did it describe what happened in it.

The war dead may have been killed thanks to Russian aid to Iran, but the president won’t take responsibility for that either. The AP reported Friday that Russia gave Iran intel to help “strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region.” When a Fox reporter asked, Trump snapped: “What a stupid question that is to be asking.” (On the same day the AP reported Russia’s abetting of Iran, the US Treasury said it might lift sanctions on Russian oil.)

A president who won’t give anything, not even respect, still expects the rest of us to. “Oil prices have crossed into triple digits for the first time since 2022,” Axios reported Sunday. Politico said experts predict "we may see $4 and perhaps $5-a-gallon gas prices within weeks. And this in a country where the cost of living is already the hottest political issue."

Though Trump promised to lower costs and put America First, $5-a-gallon gas is apparently the price for stability in … a place that’s not America. Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez said: “You gotta pay the price. If it takes four weeks, so be it. If it takes a bit longer, so be it.”

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Donald Trump is spending billions of dollars a day in the name of the American people while driving up the cost of living not only with an illegal war but also illegal tariffs, not to mention gutting Medicaid, food stamps and other services. But it’s all going to be worth it, right?

Hardly. Even before Mojtaba Khamenei was installed to replace his h dad, the Iranians had Trump figured out. They have long understood that they can use “economic pain," not diplomacy or military action, to exhaust his political will, which was already in short supply, as the point of the war was never national defense but creating conditions in which an old, depleted and unpopular president looks big, tough and loved on American TV.

And just like that, Trump seems ready to TACO. 

Amid news of soaring oil prices, Trump told CBS News today that “the war is very complete, pretty much.” He said “they have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no Air Force,” which, even if true, is far short of his previous demand for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

Iran predicted this would happen. Then it did. 

What has all the sacrifice been for? Iran has a new leader who’s more murderous than the last one. It is more motivated than ever to acquire nuclear weapons. Its pro-democracy movement has been crushed. Experts worry Tehran will activate “sleeper cells” in the US. And war, not peace, has spread across the region. (Not to mention Iran’s incentive to choke off the global supply of oil at the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf whenever it wants.)

Iran is winning the war. 

Because it’s Trump’s, not America’s.