“We Love You, God”

By James Moore  

There are four madmen presently threatening the safety of every human alive. Russia’s Putin, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu, and the American president, and their insanity is supplemented by a fifth, China’s Xi Jinping. Each is acting as a dictator, ignoring global conventions and norms, which puts the entire world at great risk. The populations of these countries seem unable to stop these crazed power hungry fools. Trump has made a great miscalculation with the attack on Iran, which is likely to launch at least a regional war, spike oil prices, and set the global economy to reeling worse than it already is as a consequence of the trade wars and tariffs.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions have long agitated the U.S. and threatens this country’s inexplicable unilateral support of whatever Israel desires, geopolitically. The Islamic Republic believes it also has a sovereign right to create nuclear weapons, which have been developed by other countries in the region. The Iranians’ reputation as state sponsors of terrorism and its threats to Israel have marginalized it in global geo-politics, of course, but little attention has been paid to the nations that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to reduce the production of more nuclear weapons. India and Pakistan, constantly skirmishing, have made no commitment regarding stoppage or reduction of nuclear weapons, and Israel, which has never even acknowledged it possesses a nuclear arsenal, has not signed the NPT. The country has, however, had a nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert since 1967, and an international military publication once ranked it as possessing the fifth largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

The U.S. is once more meddling in the Mideast mostly at the political behest of Israel. Netanyahu has delayed his legal troubles with the war in Gaza and becomes untouchable after Israel’s attacks on Iran. Nobody changes leaders in the middle of war. Trump, who has been getting hammered in the polls for his tariffs and the DOGE cuts of critical programs, is suddenly posturing as a war president and using his frequent superlative phrases like this attack “was the likes of what the world has never seen,” and that, “We love you, God,” even as he is launching an unprovoked attack on Iran. The Ayatollah and Iran have not attacked U.S. interests or bases in the region and have been involved in missile exchanges with Israel. American taxpayers, of course, supply the money for much of Israel’s weaponry, and Iranian proxies have, historically, committed terroristic acts against U.S. interests in the Mideast.

Americans have no idea, though, what will come next after Trump inserted the U.S. into Israel’s war with Iran. We have at least seven military bases within easy missile range of Iran and there are an estimated 25,000 troops stationed at those facilities. Iran’s weaponry can carry out precision strikes with the Fateh-100 and Zolfaghar missiles within 300-700 kilometers and it has the Shahab-3, Sejjil missiles that reach medium range bases within 1000-2000 kilometers. Iraqi militias and Yemen’s Houthis are also likely to be enlisted as proxies using drones and cruise missiles, if Iran chooses to respond to Trump’s capriciousness. The president who said he would keep America out of wars has now put 25,000 of his fellow citizens at risk of immediate death. The U.S. has invested in missile defenses at those bases with Patriot, THAAD, C-RAM systems but Iranian saturation attacks can probably not be stopped.

Trump launched his attack the same way he has destroyed the government, by acting unilaterally, issuing orders, and robbing congress of its war powers. U.S. presidents are not supposed to wage war, or begin one, without the authority of the U.S. congress, a concept that seems quaint to our new War Monger in Chief. Moral rhetoric about Putin’s invasion and ongoing attacks on Ukraine now seem a bit quaint. We are hardly different. We are bombing a country that has not attacked this country, and we are doing so only because one of our allies, Israel, feels threatened by Iran’s nuclear development. We are acting now as nothing more than Israel’s proxy and American military men and women ought not to be dying to protect Israel’s sovereignty. We have no idea whether the situation will escalate, or Iran will stand down. Iranian state television reportedly, however, showed a map on air of all the U.S. bases in the region and said, “Mr. Trump, you started it and we will end it.”

The Iranian government also claimed that the bombings, which were designed to end the country’s nuclear development, did not destroy its uranium supply, and that its enriched uranium had been moved from the target sites “long ago.” If true, the U.S. military mission will have accomplished nothing more than moving the entire world closer to war with our unprovoked attack. Trump almost appears to be taking direct orders from Netanyahu on how to deploy U.S. military resources. His actions against Iran are unprecedented and possibly the most satisfying moment of Netanyahu’s political career. His claims that Iran was close to finalizing a nuclear weapons program have never been substantiated. No public evidence of the risk has even been released by Iran or the U.S., and the present military posture is similar to George W. Bush’s spurious nonsense about Iraq’s nuclear weapons development. Iraq had a warehouse full of aluminum tubes that were rocket bodies waiting for motors and fins but the Bush administration lied and claimed they were rods used to build uranium gas separators, which did not exist in Iraq. They were not.

When the U.S. B-2 airplanes dropped the 30,000 pound bombs on the alleged nuclear sites in Iran, they weren’t just blowing up bunkers, they were obliterating hopes of peace in the Middle East. One man, Trump, has decided to gamble the fate of millions on his belief the Ayatollah will not respond, a nonsensical idea given he is an aging dictator and will be seen as weak if he fails to react. Surrender and peace seem immediately, the unlikeliest of all outcomes. The president ,who said he could end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in only one day, has managed to drag the U.S. into a war only six month after taking office. This is not the considered action of a thoughtful and introspective human. Trump is someone, like Bush, who wants to play tough guy and get the world thinking about things other than his failures, which are many and manifest.

And like most of history’s dictators, he thinks God is on his side.

This article was originally published on Texas to the world.

 

Also by James Moore:

American Tiananmen

Daddy and the Nazis

 

James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. His newest book will be released mid- 2023. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.

He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).

His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.

Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”