Back during the W administration, a blogger (I forget whom) had a post up about the importance of character in our leaders. Not so much being a good or moral person, though that’s part of it, but that no matter how good someone’s policies are, they’ll inevitably faces challenges that aren’t matters of policy. How will they react?
FDR faced Pearl harbor. JFK had the Cuban Missile Crisis. Jimmy Carter had the Iranian embassy hostage-taking. W had 9/11. Kennedy handled his crisis well. FDR handled the military side well, but also greenlit sending Japanese Americans to concentration camps. W’s response to an attack by terrorists was to seize what looked like a golden opportunity and invade Iraq.
Dealing with self-inflicted wounds is another area. Clinton’s adultery, Reagan selling weapons to Iran, LBJ using a supposed Vietnamese attack as justification for sending in ground troops to Vietnam. Which brings us to our current situation vis a vis Iran.
Iran is entirely a self-inflicted wound. The Toddler in Chief made one of America’s stupidest foreign policy decisions because he thought crushing Iran would prove what a badass he was and couldn’t imagine any other outcome. And because it’s in Netanhay’s interest we attack (Netanhayu has been pushing for us to do it for years) and also Saudi Arabia. Because he’s a stupid man who assumes he can dominate every situation, we’re now in way over his head. The world’s most powerful military is losing to a much less powerful nation.
As I wrote in an earlier post, the Toddler can’t accept losing; when thwarted, he immediately tries throwing his wait around in a different stupid manner (no matter how much Karoline “Axis Sally Leavitt” lies about how well-read he is). So having previously insisted the Strait of Hormuz is unimportant and Europe should liberate it, the Toddler is now threatening to blow Iran to kingdom come if they don’t open it.
As Paul Krugman says, this is very bad — targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime. Particularly when it’s a war we didn’t have to fight, one that’s more about the Toddler’s ego than our own country’s needs.
Then we have the utterly incompetent Secretary of War Pete Hegseth who pointedly held a Good Friday service at the Pentagon Chapel … Protestants only. As I’ve said before, this is why we have a First Amendment — because bigots will interpret “Christian nation” as meaning their brand of Christianity and no other. He’s also a misogynist and racist who we recently learned actively opposed promotion of qualified POC and women to higher rank. And wants personal loyalty from the officer corps.
Stay tuned for more bad news. I’m sure it’s on the way.
