3/7/26

TRUMP’S WAR OF WHIMSY MOVES INTO WEEK 2

AN APPARENT Iranian rocket lodged, unexploded, in a field in Syria. PHOTO CREDIT, Baderkhan Ahmad, The Associated Press

IN THE SECOND WEEK of the Iran War of 2026, the most urgent question is: When will it end?
     The only certainty is that the war will end as it began on Feb. 28, at the whim of Donald Trump, the unhinged president of the United States.
     There is a host of other questions, both frivolous and profound.
     Will Trump announce the conclusion of the war as he began it, wearing a “USA” baseball cap, speaking from a recorded video posted on social media as most American’s slept?
     Will “victory” be proclaimed from Trump’s Southern castle, Mar-a-Logo, 1100 S Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach, Florida or at a slightly more official mansion, maybe the construction plot of his East Wing ballroom, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington?
     How much mayhem and mischief will have been generated by the time Victory Day in Iran is reached?
     As of this writing, Iran counted 926 civilian deaths – a pittance compared to the thousands of Iranians that the regime itself had slaughtered for protesting economic distress a few weeks before the war began.
     Israel, the USA’s eager military partner, had killed 217 in Lebanon, although as I was writing this the radio said hundreds more died in continuing attacks, but I didn’t catch the exact number.
     So far six American soldiers – all Army Reservists – have died, and their bodies were returned to the United States earlier today, as Trump, wearing his stupid USA baseball cap, looked on.
     Considering the scope of the war, you can almost hear Trump and his henchmen thinking “only” six, which might be tolerable politically.

 TRUMP HAS DRAWN a fair amount of criticism for not more formally addressing “the American people,” to outline his reasons for starting the war and to explain his goals for finishing it.
      I’m not sure I understand this, since Trump is a serial liar.
     Why would anyone want to hear from someone who never tells the truth? Trump  says one thing one day, another on the second day, so whatever he says on any day is meaningless.
     In this, the second week, there is only one reason for the war, and it’s the same as on Day One: there is no reason.
     The war on its first day was illegal, and remains so today, since only Congress can declare war and it has done no such thing, despite some feeble attempts in the Republican-controlled Congress.
     By the time the war is finished, little will have changed except the extent of the horror. 
     There will be more deaths, more mangled bodies, more ruined real estate, more refugees, more haunted psyches and more reasons for one enemy to hold a grudge, and the same for the other side.
     It’s not likely much will be different for everyday Iranians after the country puts itself together.
     If there is such a thing as regime change in a dictatorship, the new one likely will be as odious as the one it replaces.
     By then, Donald Trump will care less.
    Depending on the war’s eventual toll, and how seriously Americans regard the price, Trump will move his capable and obedient military to his next target, whatever nation or region has somehow displeased him.
     Cuba. Greenland, Canada. Spain.
    There seems no end to Trump’s Wars of Whimsy, fought on a single, continuous battlefield that so far has no limits.