This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

The question which bothers me most is, do they actually believe this shit themselves? Or, are they so deluded they actually don’t,  but tell themselves they do? All Iran had to do was say the Strait of Hormuz was closed, and it’s closed. Every hour the strait is closed, the pressure builds. The Trump administration lifts sanctions on Russian oil as a sop to India and China. Desperate to get oil from anywhere to appease others impacted by Trump’s incredible folly. They have to know it’s not enough oil. So, they must understand the danger.

Yet, in public, they acted as if everything were fine. While they nervously tremble, explaining all is well. Quickly, they thought the war was over. Trump even claimed Iran had surrendered. Who is minding the store? Never mind, I’d rather not know. What are they telling Trump to make him say things like that? That’s not a slip or telling tales out of school. That is a full-fledged fuck-up. If you’re the leader of a country at war, it’s important that you know the status of that war at all times.

Any uncertainty is genuinely frightening. Wow! That’s hard to believe. The President got the status of the war [Wrong!] That’s frightening on so many levels. He believes it himself. He doesn’t believe it himself, but only says it for some shock and disinformation value. Maybe someone told him to say it to look tough. Maybe he thought the ruse would demoralize Iran; it didn’t. The clock is ticking, and the world is watching and waiting. The administration has painted itself into the corner. World markets are losing their shit over this. A weekend in Venezuela is fine. But six months in Baghdad is beyond the pale.

Mr. Trump offered to pay the enlarged insurance costs and found no takers. No crews and no ships were willing to cross the line. Gulf states are reducing production, preparing for a possible prolonged conflict. If Trump can’t get that oil moving again and quickly. As every nation looks at the US from Albania to Zambia mumbling, “you stupid motherfucker.” Look what you’ve done! You’ve started a serious war with no upside. Throwing the world into a global recession affecting the lives of tens of millions of people. And the leader of one of the combatants, doesn’t even know who is winning.

If the oil doesn’t move then Iran is winning. She holds the economic world by the throat. Sooner rather than later, the US will have to relent. Turning off the world’s oil spicket might have seemed a good idea at the time. They didn’t consider the possibility that Iran wouldn’t surrender. They telegraphed there would be no boots on the ground. It was all about time and not space. Boots on the ground meant time, in months and years. It’s lightning quick like Venezuela, but there is that recurring nervousness in their voice. If the Fuhrer doesn’t reach Moscow before winter, the war is lost.

For the Trump regime. Every day in makes it harder to back out. Until Trump declares victory and goes home. Iran has to do nothing but wait to win this war. While the United Snakes must win in Vietnam in just a few days. The moment the first boot touches the first ground, the markets will nose-dive. The world really didn’t need a war right now. It’s an inopportune time. So Trump’s war is like the lifeguard shouting, “Everyone out of the pool! The good times are over!” In the middle of a credit crunch, a hole in the budget you could drive a Bradley Fighting vehicle through.

How can Trump disengage without losing face? You guys had enough? But then again, this is unconditional surrender, Trump. Does he even know what is going on? Is there some other war room set up somewhere else to really run the war? While Mr. Trump sits in the pretend war room counting up his victories. Oil prices over $100 a barrel mean disaster for a lot of countries. Why did he do that? What was he thinking?

The intelligence agencies had all told the administration, “Don’t do it!” But they did it anyway. What do those guys know? We’ve got a plan to clean up the world by acting as an over-dictator to all the under- dictators. You do what I say, or else! No mamby pamby excuses or illusions about democratic goals or values or people voting. Just straight up gangsterism. You do what we say, or we’ll kill you! You got it?

Do you see now, Little Johnny? Do you see why America is the greatest country in the whole wide world? Only in America, where any boy or girl can grow up and become a lawless, ruthless dictator the world hates and fears. Or perhaps a doddering old fool who thinks he’s the President. Given phony briefings with phony numbers and analysis . “We’re winning, Sir!” How else could he believe Iran had already surrendered? Somebody told him that “They’re ready to surrender, sir!”

Polling shows the new depths and lows with Trump now being unpopular in nearly all fifty states. Gee, the Republican states tried redistricting early, hoping to pick up a few seats. It looks like a pointless exercise now, as somehow it doesn’t seem to be working. As Donald Trump is now less popular than Chlamydia, and they’re all swing states now. Pedophile sex scandal we can look away. A racist bigot as president, we can look away and pretend not to see. But Goddamn it! Not another war in the Middle East!

By the wide variety of possible solutions offered by the administration, exposes the administration’s many weaknesses. “Yes” troops, “No” troops means they don’t know troops. They want it to be over is what they want. They want it to work out like the plan. Because if they are not winning immediately, they are losing eventually. Time is the ultimate arbiter. How much pain can the domestic economy withstand? As Trump tells the world how much oil America has. Bragging to the poor and hungry about how much food we have. “Don’t worry about us! We’ve got plenty!” Maybe what he was trying to say was something about not being blackmailed. But it comes out all garbled. It makes you worry. Is that what he was trying to say? Does he even know what he’s saying?  Who is in charge here…really?

“At headquarters, where everyone lived under the tremendous pressure of responsibility, probably nothing was more welcome than a dictate from above. That meant being freed of a decision and simultaneously being provided with an excuse for failure.” ― Albert Speer,