As a boomer whose early years were filled with WWII imagery and consequences, including tearful send offs of older cousins from Fort Dix to Korea and whose first ballot was cast at the peak of the colliding anti(Vietnam)war/civil rights/sexual revolution movements – the Iran War, in just a month, has evoked more contradictions and contradictory desires, personal and societal, than all wars of my lifetime, including the numerous conflicts in the Middle East, where  the U.S. has always been a player, if not a combatant.

I repeat my belief, stated in HL 209, that “Trump went to war with Iran for all the wrong reasons and/or without really knowing why” but I support the war, nonetheless.  That is not really contradictory but an uncomfortable position that likely mirrors the feelings of most of the minority (40%) of Americans who supported our commencement of hostilities in late February and still do.

This is not the first war where many, though certainly a small minority, of Americans are hoping we lose.  I remember fellow students chanting “Ho Ho, Ho Chi Minh, NLF is gonna win” while students like me protested the war without hoping that other young Americans would die.  But this is the first war where Americans hopeful of American defeat strain to label as “defeat” or Pyrrhic Victory every military accomplishment.  “Sure we destroyed the Iranian navy, but it was obsolete and no threat.”  Same of its air force.  “We destroyed massive numbers of missiles, drones and the foundries and capacities to make them, but there are plenty left and the 90 percent reduction in missile and drone attacks must be because they are saving them up for future assaults on American interests.”

“Didn’t the Ayatollah stop Iran from developing nukes with his 2004 fatwa?”  “We have replaced an 86-year-old Ayatollah with one only 56-years-old.”  “The new Iranian leaders are even more radical than those we’ve killed.”  Those last three seemingly constant refrains are almost as ludicrous as the one coming from Trump to the effect that Iran’s new leaders are much less radical and easier to deal with.

Pramila Jayapal

Another I keep hearing is “see how this all backfired with closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” but not a word that it might be good to stop, reduce, delay Iran’s ability and demonstrated resolve to close that strait, arm and deploy those terror proxies, embed and unleash terror sleeper cells in the homeland, arm numerous enemies with their missiles and drones, bomb our marine barracks and weave IEDs and mines throughout the fabric of the planet’s lands and seas.  No, nothing about that except “none of that was imminent” despite the fact that all that had happened regularly and would continue to occur regularly and as a result of this war might occur far less frequently for a decade or two, if not longer.  Might, but will only if Trump, who clearly is badly confused and badly motivated, does not cut and run over the price of gasoline.  That soaring price is one of the best collateral consequences of this war.  At once it might counter Trump’s many efforts to prop up fossil fuels and his quixotic effort to vanquish windmills and other sources of free, renewable and clean energy.  And given the fact that the American electorate returned Trump to office with full knowledge of who he was and what he had done and attempted on 1/6/2021, because they expected him to lower the price of a gallon and a dozen, Trump’s failure in that regard might result in Republican electoral fiascos in 2026 and 2028.  “Might” but might not if the Democrats don’t tread a good deal more carefully than they have since this war began.  We must insist on obedience to the rule of constitutional, statutory and humanitarian law (e.g. the Article l war and purse powers, the War Powers Act and rules of engagement etc., all ignored by Trump in this war).  But Democrats should stop appearing to gloat about our battlefield tactical and strategic failures. We should stop beginning every sentence with some variation of “while we are shedding no tears for the Ayatollah, we know Iran is run by evil-doers who have killed many Americans and is the lead nation for state sponsored terror” without explaining what we propose to do about that instead of this war.  Because if we don’t heed this advice we Democrats may as Lincoln said “wring defeat from the jaws of victory.”