Grandiose Nonsense

The quality of a decision isn’t a function of its outcome. Inordinate risks aren’t worth taking… even when they work out.

Atlanta, GA

March 1, 2026

It’s tempting to comment quickly when major news breaks. But doing so is almost always a mistake. Especially these days, when algorithms feed us distorted “content” they want us to see.

We know truth is the first casualty in the fog of war. So it’s best to let time lift the mist to reveal the lies. But having waited a day to absorb events and distill perspective, we can share sober analysis based on rational thought:

We’re led by lunatics.

After twenty-five years causing carnage by invading, attacking, and destroying places that are no business of the U.S. government, its chief executive has launched another reckless war.

As a quaint disclaimer, we must restate the obvious: presidents aren’t authorized to do this. Only Congress is. As usual, it didn’t do so. Nor does it care.

If it did, articles of impeachment would’ve already been filed. They probably will be at some point. But it’ll be after the midterms, for some nonsensical charge that doesn’t indict the accusers.

We live under a rogue regime. I’m not referring only to this president. Like all recent ones, he’s simply a symptom… an ornamental knob on the Deep State’s door. The rot is more pervasive, infecting the foundations and floorboards of a structure its builders wouldn’t recognize. Donald Trump is merely a renovation gone wrong.

Bayonets and Incubators

This morning the “peace president” announced his latest act of aggression. On his own volition and in violation of his oath, he decided to wage war on another country that hadn’t harmed the United States.

To justify this outrage, he invoked the hostage crisis, the Beirut barracks bombing, and nuclear weapons that’ve been “weeks away” for thirty years. Before long we’ll hear about Iranians putting babies on bayonets and pulling infants from incubators.

Acts almost half a century ago obviously aren’t “imminent threats” that eliminate the need for a declaration of war. They also seem to provide plenty of time to have asked for one.

That the Iranian regime has lasted this long doesn’t imply it’s a problem for Americans. If anything, it proves it’s not. It hasn’t attacked us and has given every indication it doesn’t want to.

Advocates for these attacks assure us this won’t be another Iraq. Maybe. But it could be worse. Iran has almost quadruple the population Iraq had twenty years ago. It also features four times as much territory, most of which is harder to reach.

Yet the same sorts who told us the Iraq fiasco would be a “cakewalk” that would take “a couple weeks” to win swear this war (a word they don’t use) will be quick.

But if defeating Iran will be that easy, how can it be an existential threat? And if it isn’t, why the urgency to fight?

This intervention is even dumber and more reckless than the one in Iraq, because we have the precedent the earlier cataclysm provided. The U.S. government is also another $35T in debt and presides over a population that’s far more fractured.

Except about this.

Warmed-Over Dick Cheney

Aside from munitions manufacturers, war financiers, and ardent Zionists, few Americans support this war. They’re tired of wasting lives and treasure on optional misadventures to topple unsavory regimes.

Most Americans oppose this idiocy. Unless they’ve been brainwashed into believing the last quarter century didn’t occur, why wouldn’t they? Their dollar has been decimated, they’re drowning in debt, and the U.S. government has dug a $40T hole that this war won’t help.

Infested with bums and derelicts, major cities are hollowed out. Trump could rain bombs in Tehran and still leave it looking better than Baltimore. Americans struggle to buy basic necessities, their life expectancy languishes, marriage rates are plummeting, native reproduction is below replacement rate, and the culture is being conquered by people who hate it.

Like many things in our degraded age, even war propaganda has gotten pitiful. Donald Trump justified this crime with rationale reminiscent of warmed-over Dick Cheney:

“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime — a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.

For decades, the Iranian regime has waged an unending campaign of bloodshed against America and our allies — the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, the murder of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan through explosively formed penetrators and IEDs supplied by Iran, the attacks on our embassies, the taking of American hostages, the funding and arming of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and so many other terrorist groups that have killed our people and destabilized the entire world.

They have killed Americans. They continue to kill Americans. And they will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. I’ll say it again — they can never have a nuclear weapon.

That is why, in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime’s nuclear program at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. We destroyed their centrifuges, their enrichment capabilities, their hidden underground facilities. It was total and complete.

But now we have clear intelligence — they have attempted to rebuild their nuclear program in secret locations and continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach our American homeland.

We will not allow this.

Tonight we are launching massive and ongoing combat operations. We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated.

We are going to annihilate their navy. We are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region and the world.

Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, the Iranian people should take over their government. The time has come for the Iranian people to rise up against this evil, corrupt regime that has brought them nothing but suffering and isolation. …”

This is insulting and asinine. Does he expect us to be the dutiful wife who believes the cheating husband after his sixth affair? Then again, he’s Donald Trump, so maybe he does.

Our Moat

Our founders blessed the ocean that provided our moat. What happened on the other side wasn’t our concern. It still isn’t. Iran may be a thorn in Israel’s side. But it’s none of our business, and we should leave them alone.

The US should treat the Middle East like it should every region of the world: stop all subsidies, remove all sanctions, extricate all military assets, and permit unfettered travel and trade for American citizens. As for Israel, it’s less an “ally” than an albatross. Incessant destruction and slaughter on its behalf have made more enemies than we could possibly need.

What might the ones we make be inclined to do? What vengeance might fathers, brothers, and cousins of the dead be willing to take? And where? And how will our government crack down on us if such a response occurs (or if it’s made to look like it did)?

Anyone supporting what the U.S. and Israel are doing has no idea what they’re applauding. They did the same last June when they thought Iran was defeated, and two decades ago when hostilities started in Iraq. Each time, they mocked anyone wise enough to have reservations.

But let’s say war supporters are right. What if this action results in limited fighting and few deaths? That would obviously be ideal. But it wouldn’t legitimize what’s being done. The quality of a decision isn’t a function of its outcome. Irresponsible risks aren’t worth taking, even when they work out.

But we don’t even know what many potential dangers are. Some expected ones have already been realized. A US-Israeli strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran has allegedly left almost 150 dead. Regional US bases (that should never have been there) have been hit. Apparently, parts of Israel were too. American troops have been killed, tho’ causes and details remain murky.

Grandiose Nonsense

But it looks like the beatings will continue till morale improves. The president promises bombs will fall until there is “peace throughout the Middle East and, indeed, the world.”

What “conservative” could utter such grandiose nonsense? Edmund Burke would be appalled. As would the Donald Trump of two years ago. In fact, he (claimed he) was… which is a big reason he was elected.

The mere possibility of further retaliation is causing more reverberations. Lloyd’s of London has begun cancelling policies for ships entering the Straits of Hormuz, thru which a fifth of the world’s liquid petroleum passes.

Ships linked to Israeli and American interests are essentially uninsurable. Premiums that are offered have surged more than 50%. Because of this irresponsible war, the Straits could effectively close without Iran doing a thing. For the most part, it already is.

How will surging oil prices help Americans? Will it alleviate the “unaffordability crisis” this government caused? What other surprises should Americans expect? Will their rewards (assuming there are any) be worth the cost?

Supporters of this “combat operation” insist they already are. Yesterday they boasted the Ayatollah was killed, which apparently justifies what’s being done. But why? Unlike the people who ordered his death, the ruler of Iran never did anything to me, and never threatened anyone where I live. But the Israelis wanted him gone, so the president they paid for took him out.

Which raises more concerns: How was murdering the leader of a country 7,000 miles away the job of the American president? What precedent does this set (or reinforce)? In what way does it make Americans safer? Might it instead put them in greater danger? Who replaces the Ayatollah? Were the Jacobins preferable to the king, the Bolsheviks better than the Czar, or the Kaiser worse than what his ouster precipitated?

Does anyone in charge care about these questions? Do they even ask them?

Or, as is usually the case, will they only be raised in retrospect, when the answers are obvious, and everyone pretends to have known them all along?

JD

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