REAL MEN DON’T KILL CHILDREN. AND CALL IT NECESSARY

How’s that manly chest-thumping going? Let’s review. The president is “exasperated” that the Iran war is dragging on. And that his advisors can’t agree what to do next. Reportedly, he erupted last week during a meeting with his national security team, shouting expletives at the officials in the room. That oughta win the war. Instead the war is widening. Iran continues to strike US targets and neighbors. They attacked a tanker being escorted by the US. At a Cabinet meeting, Trump told reporters he intends to hit Iran with heavy military strikes again to force Iranian negotiators to give in to his demands. “We will be hitting them very hard,” he said. “And you know at some point, they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.’” No. They won’t. And if he had listened to every advisor who knows what they’re talking about he would never have gotten us in his Iranian mess. He rocked the boat with his ego and the world is paying for it. Turns out a one-dimensional ideology alone doesn’t win wars. Pete Hegseth brought such ideology into the Defense Department. He outlined his Marvel-universe vision of the American soldier in his book The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free. His single-minded belief is that the US military was weak and “effeminate” because its leaders had embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion. One solution? Get rid of the Geneva Conventions, claiming they forced US troops to fight “with one hand behind our back.” In his vision, civilian deaths shouldn’t be a concern. Hence the bombing of the Iranian school that killed 168 people, mostly girls, in the first hours of the war. In his confirmation hearings, Hegseth refused to tell senators that he would honor the Geneva Convention. He changed the name of the Defense Department to the Department of War as part of his campaign to spread a “warrior ethos” at the Pentagon. The rebranding, he said, was part of “restoring intentionality to the use of force…. We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality, violent effect, not politically correct. We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. So this War Department, Mr. President, just like America, is back.” Hegseth’s lack of humanity is a weakness. Not a strength. It takes no bravery to kill innocent people. It’s the easiest thing in the world. So Iran is definitely not the overwhelming T-fest envisioned by paper warriors. Even after purging women, African-Americans, generals with expertise. Purging expertise, period. Same with anonymously blowing boats out of the oceans saying the drug trade is being killed, not just fishermen. Those strikes have killed more than 220 people. But zero evidence has been produced to prove claims that those killed were “narcoterrorists.” Trump claims the strikes have virtually ended drug trafficking by sea. But according to Pentagon officials, and the DEA, the strikes have not reduced cocaine coming into the US. In fact it’s gotten cheaper. So the war-against-drugs random killing has made coke cheaper. Reorganized criminal organizations to find new routes. Disrupted the law enforcement informant system as undercover sources are being pulled back in favor of just blowing shit up. Other simplistic leaders have tried this approach. Most recently former Philippine prez Rodrigo Duterte’s extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers and users. In 2017, Trump called Duterte to congratulate him for doing “an unbelievable job on the drug problem.” Duterte is now behind bars in the Hague. Charged with crimes against humanity for trying to get rid of criminals by unlawful means, including murder. Wonder if he’s received a presidential phone call lately? The point is that a Hollywood-inspired vision of what constitutes a strong, lethal fighting force is not real. You can purge everyone who still has a moral core, pump them full of T, give them the most deadly killing tools on the planet, and all you will end up doing is killing a lot of innocent people. Wars are won with a realistic vision of success, a workable and strategic plan, along with a well-trained military. Wars are not won by a facade of unreality backed by a fantasy of what constitutes a real warrior. Winning a war should not rest on bombing a country and population into oblivion. That is not a warrior ethos. That is barbarism. A war crime in the eyes of the world. And the rules of war. The Trump administration should be concerned.