This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

If you live long enough, you will certainly witness history repeating itself yourself. When I was but a sweet young lad with cheeks of tan, LBJ sent B-52s to bomb North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Day after day, week after week, month after month. What’s wrong with those people? Why won’t they give up? Richard Nixon had a secret plan to win the Vietnam War. Step one. Elect Richard Nixon President! Step two. Stand by for further details at a later date.

Yes, it’s true! Americans fell for that. The Democrats had a party squabble big enough to ruin a reflecting pool liner helping Nixon to gain office. Nixon and his team figured out the problem right away. It seemed that Johnson wasn’t dropping enough bombs. More is better. It’s the American way. But nothing changed. Those crazy North Vietnamese never did surrender.

Politico – ‘This is what a quagmire looks like’ Trump enters a bleak new phase.

CNN- US Completes More Strikes Against Iran

NBC News – Trump vows revenge on Iran

Fox News – Trump weighs full scale Iran operations after the latest attack.

USA Today – Trump’s height questioned after viral FIFA clip. “Hard hitting, fearless bare knuckle journalism on your doorstep every morning!”

What they are trying to say without saying it is the United States has suffered a military reverse. They’re really pissed about it and they vow to seek revenge. Where’s Yosemite Pete? The rootenest and tootinest War Secretary this side of the Pecos! Yeah, Joe Isuzu doesn’t do downers. And that is the tattletale. If Pete had something to brag about, he would. His silence speaks volumes. Apparently, his boss is displeased with his performance.

After destroying 300% of the Iranian Air Force, twice! 900% of the Iranian Navy, 2,000% of their missile capability and 78% of their boards with nails in them capacity. The US discovers it isn’t one iota closer to winning the war. Pissing away high-tech weaponry making the rubble bounce with missiles that we might need someday, a billion dollars at a time. Anyone of Vietnam age has heard and knows this story, through and through.

The Iranians rest with the near certainty the US will pay to repair most of what we’ve bombed having agreed to it in the memo ran dumb of misappropriation. Oh, wait! Mr. Trump abrogated the memo unilaterally. I told you he would.

When the Iran war began, Mr. Trump panicked. He saw the bad numbers and rising fuel prices and began to shit himself! “Make a deal! Make it stop! Make a deal! Make a deal! Then, after Mr. Trump proudly signed the memo twice, he abrogated it unilaterally. They pumped him full of hot air and sang him a few choruses of “In the Navy.” And Mr. Trump began to have buyer’s remorse. “What the hell did you tell me to sign that for? Control of the strait! We can’t allow that! More and more, it looks like the memo was just another Trump fraud. A ploy to trick the Iranians into opening the Strait. And it worked! Kudo’s! Good luck on getting your next one.

We slickered the snot out of them! They incorrectly thought that they were dealing with honorable men who could be trusted to keep their word. Trump’s lackey and his son-in-law? RU kidding? And the Iranians thought they could be trusted? A real knee-slapper, how dumb can these yokels get? I bet they don’t fall for that one again. Orange man speaks with a forked tongue. “Suckers!”

Iran can withstand the missiles and bombs for as long as Mr. Trump can afford to hurl them. There is no limit to what they could withstand, knowing it will all be replaced. There is a limit, however, on bombs and rockets. There is also a time limit. Despite Congress cutting the administration’s purse strings, they continue to ask for $100 billion more. Iran knows, without a full ground invasion, the US can never hope to the win. [See: Vietnam, 1945-1975]

The most dangerous amphibian landing since Iwo Jima, and the first such landing since Inchon. We’re going to take Kharg Island! Give me liberty and ten gallons of premium! Then what? The world (everyone besides yourself) will suffer higher prices and greater disruptions because of the war, not despite it. You’re not fighting a war over democratic government or economic principles. This is a war about an insane and petty leader. A cranky, spoiled old man who wants what he wants, control of the world’s oil markets. Damn, the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

Iran hit us back! The nerve of those guys! Who do they think they are? How dare they do that? We’ll, that just means, now it’s clobberin time! Now, were really mad motherfuckers! We were just playing before! Now, you’re going to get it. Just you wait!

I’ve read these exact headlines before. They were in German newspapers from the battle of Stalingrad. We shall win…eventually. That word eventually, how it rings hollow through the halls of history. Yes, on paper a ground invasion is possible. The chances of its success or its practicality, not to mention its cost are truly beyond comprehension. Pick a number at random. It’s more than that!

It boils down to whether it’s better to suffer a small defeat, retreat and lick our wounds. Or go whole hog and suffer a large, costly defeat all at once. Remember! Mr. Trump’s honor is at stake here. He said he would stand up to Iran even if it cost us our last bottom dollar. Because Mr. Trump wants to control the global energy markets. Do as we say, or else. Has any earthquake aid reached Venezuela yet from the Trump administration? “We’re working on it.”

Mr. Trump started this war unilaterally. He had the basis for peace in his tiny hands but was unhappy with the terms he had previously agreed to. So now, it’s war again! Mr. Trump’s war! Let’s bomb them ten nights in a row! Or maybe twenty nights or forty days and nights. No, forty is to too biblical.

This is some of that crazy right-wing think-tank mythology. If we knock over all the bad guys! We can rule the world! We can control the energy market and get fat as pigs. It will be our glory days! Jesus will come down from heaven and bless us for our crimes. One man, one vote, unless we say otherwise or you’ve got something we want, Pedro! First, we knock over Venezuela. Then we knock over Iran and then Nigeria. The it will just be US and the Russians. Glory Days, putting Donald Trump in charge of the global energy market. What could possibly go wrong? Why does Mr. Trump always send his bag men to secure a deal instead of trained diplomats? That’s a rhetorical question.

“But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.”  ― George Washington