This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

It is a story with all the makings of a Greek tragedy. King of kings and greatest in all the lands being ground down on the lathe of heaven. The Wagnerian prince defeated by the Furies. Odysseus struggling to get home with the gods constantly interfering. Auntie Em, Auntie Em! What comes next after political and military defeat? How will the big man respond to the agony of defeat? A heavy burden to carry for one so weak in mind.

Trump isn’t smart, but he is cunning or clueless, and it only looks cunning because it’s otherwise so unexplainable. It’s rare for a regime to lose a war and still retain power. First comes the shock, and then comes awe. The effects are only beginning to emerge. The costs are accumulating and accelerating like a wedge. Mr. Trump is such a proud man. Prone to flights of fancy, fear, and filigree in moments of stress. Poor Horatio, abandoned by the world.

Messianic dictators, especially those who feel their own coming was preordained to spread the Lord’s message among us. Are often hard-nosed in other positions as well, especially in defeat. How will the little messianic orange madman behave in defeat? His dreams and delusions of grandeur crashed on the rocks of brutal reality.  Gonna build me a ballroom! And an Arch of Triumph and they’re gonna rename the airport after me!

Mr. Trump can claim victory and take his participation trophy and go home. But Iran won’t let him off the hook that easily. Sooner or later, Trump has to take a bite of the unpalatable bitter defeat. What’s he likely to do trying to get back in the win column? Cuba? Bite off another bit of adventure? Reminds me of the time this guy started a war with Russia before finishing his war with the United Kingdom. It’s a difficult time for the king with traitors all around him and no one left to trust. “Stay the course! Stay the course! They’ll surrender eventually! I’m sure of it! Well, I’m almost sure of it! They tell me we’re winning! We got em, right where we want them!”

Mr. Trump’s fractured and frenetic cries for help signal frenzy inside the crazy house. Lashing out at the world when rebuked. “Please, please, you’ve got to help me!” No. “Well, okay then. I don’t need your help! I’ll do it myself, pal! Who needs you? Mr. Trump builds walls instead of bridges. What will he do when he’s cornered? Marked for all  history as one of its foolish, failed loser adventurers. Now, class, if you’ll open your future history books to page 184. “United States loses influence in the Middle East.” After the disastrous Israel – US and Iran war. The US was encouraged to reduce its footprint in the region.

A noticeable shrinking of the empire and the closing of a front. Dirt rubbed directly into Mr. Trump’s face. A big military loser badge. This is the guy who nearly wet himself over getting somebody else’s Nobel Peace Prize. And now you’re going to hang the loser badge on Mr. Trump? I suspect he will become agitated. Iran has 25% of the world’s oil held hostage, and there is nothing the Trump regime can do about it.

Common sense says to say “Uncle” and make a deal and promise to never do it again. Get the oil flowing and get the traffic moving. But that is what common sense would approve of. But Mr. Trump is such a prideful man, and common sense isn’t accepted even at the back door. There’s still time to get out! That’s a signpost up ahead, exit here! Does that sound like something Mr. Trump would do? Or will Mr. Trump become more punitive? Trump wanted to be Abraham Lincoln, but ended up as Jefferson Davis instead. But if the dress fits, wear it.

Iran has the United States by the shorthairs, but the US also has the world in its claw. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, and only Donald Trump can open it. He can open it this week or six months from now. What price will Iran ask from Trump, and what price will Mr. Trump demand from us all? What will he put the world through to salve his ego?

Day seventeen and Iran is still hitting targets. Missile stocks aren’t big enough! There aren’t enough defensive missiles. Now the Iranian missiles are getting through. Two major US radars have been hit and put out of operation.  Five air tankers were damaged in Saudi Arabia. The US embassy in Baghdad has been hit twice.

For Mr. Trump to admit defeat would be opening himself up to the slings and arrows of his enemies, both real and imagined. Is he capable of doing that? I doubt it. Iran is going to want a show of surrender and contrition. Is something like that even possible?

Donald Trump demanded unconditional surrender and offered “no Quarter” which means take no prisoners. [WAR Crime] When you tell an adversary that you’re seeking their total destruction of his country, his religion and his way of life and will leave them an absolute  destitute vassal, it changes the nature of the struggle. We might see it more as big mouth Trump shooting off his yap again. But our adversary sees it as a declaration of total war. Loose lips sink more than just ships.

There are two paths, and on the first one the Trump junta admits defeat, makes an accommodation and pays the price. Either that, or they choose the other course and dig in their heels and fight. The war with Iran is so unpopular the media is forbidden to give out any real numbers describing its unpopularity. All talk of a short war is over. The conversation is changing again. Regime change? Liberate those poor Iranian bastards and give them the blessings of liberty? To now defending the Strait of Hormuz.

But we can’t do it.

But can we admit that we can’t do it? What’s going to happen to Tommy after you make him stare into the mirror? This is bunker and Luger country. Dangerous ground in a dangerous time. Stand down, admit your mistakes, make accommodations and move on. Or dig in your heels like a petulant child who doesn’t get his way?

“There has never been a just [war], never an honorable one–on the part of the instigator of the war. I can see a million years ahead, and this rule will never change in so many as half a dozen instances. The loud little handful–as usual–will shout for the war. The pulpit will–warily and cautiously–object–at first; the great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, ‘It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it.’ Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out and lose popularity. Before long you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men who in their secret hearts are still at one with those stoned speakers–as earlier–but do not dare say so. And now the whole nation–pulpit and all–will take up the war-cry, and shout itself hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and presently such mouths will cease to open. Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.” – Mark Twain