Thank you, Peter,for such a clear, "not sophisticated" insights on America's myopic approach. I think it applies to domestic issues and international issues alike. It seems to be a byproduct of the culture of "fast food delivery," instant satisfaction, and "will cross that bridge when we get there.... etc."
And still on the Middle East, how many times, how many presidents, and how many meetings that concluded that the Palestinians deserve a viable state, that occupation is illegal, .... on and on. Then you get a congressman like Cruze, R- Texas, who claims that he got into Congress with the goal of defending Israel.... See his interview with Tucker Carlson a few days ago. ... "Because the Bible said so!"
To quote a line from 9th century Baghdad poet... "I never saw a colossal human failure, like the failure of who can do the greatest good and fail to do so." That is America, Akhi Peter.
Thank you for pointing out the price of ignoring the long term consequences of our immorality. Trump will likely be dead in another 10-15 years, and can't think beyond today. Now we kidnap and deport "undesirables" here and bomb or collude in killing abroad, with no "self defense" whatsoever. We gut the country of any programs that improve our lives in any way and do the same abroad. We silence and coerce the media, and anyone connected to the law. Our healthcare and that of our planet is on a downward collision. We re-set the norms so that mass shootings are now happening outside the US. And of course, we have no interest in learning from other countries who have decent healthcare and childcare and don't have homelessness, because then we would become socialist or communist, i.e. poor. That might be the worst fear of all for the current regime.
One really grave consequence that you failed to mention is the assault on the Constitution. Trump usurped powers he does not have. Trump has been usurping powers he does not have. Trump is shredding the constitution.
And this is happening when Maga nation and Christian nationalists are engaged in an all-out war on the constitution (as most recently evidenced in an award given to a Florida University Law student for a paper arguing that the US Constitution applies only to white people).
Allow me to draw from the wealth of Jewish traditions and suggest the following mantra for reflection and meditation: "OY GEWALT!!!"
Bravo Peter. Thank you for daring to bring up the moral argument. Almost old-fashioned, quaint. The moral argument is so often connected tolong-term thinking, too.
Your observations about the time horizon is absolutely right. It also made me think of Israel's practice of "mowing the lawn." Israel was willing to accept very short time horizons of "success" at keeping Palestinian's in a helpless state by periodically carrying out operations designed to kill enough Palestinian fighters (with some collateral damage as well) that there was no serious threat to Israeli security.
Or so they thought, of course, until 10/7. After that, they had to rethink, and so they've come up with what they think will be a more permanent solution - expulsion, helped along in part by a genocide that will "motivate" some Palestinians in Gaza (for now - WB soon) to leave. But the practice of mowing the lawn has succeeded in desensitizing the Israeli Jewish populace to violence done to Palestinians - after all, most of them have participated in it during their mandatory time in the IDF.
Cheeto Uses Iran Attack to Bail Out of Domestic Issues
Orange Cheeto leaned into the Israeli Iran Conflict with his strongman mentality and initiated a bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities In a way with Israel having weakened the Iranian air defense with a large bombing campaign Cheeto decided that the risk would not be high to move ahead and help Netanyahu "finish the job" with the nuclear facility bombing The other factor is that Cheeto is taking domestic hits at home with his strongman immigration policies with losses in court so the “distract card” was played
Now we as a nation is hoping that this is it Cheeto elected to ignore the national intelligence community that Iran has enough enriched uranium to create an atomic bomb but did not have a bomb https://bit.ly/3GaRbBz This US attack will set back the Iranian uranium program for a year but not deter But Iran could have removed the enriched uranium to another secure site before the bombing occurred
Cheeto hopes that this is a one off but the Iranians are in this for the long haul This maybe another Iraq "weapons of mass destruction" except no one can prove that Cheeto was wrong that Iran had the bomb based on its enriched uranium stores But one thing is clear that Cheeto is going to go full bore on Iran hence America is at war
I grew up amongst the Persian diaspora in Los Angeles and have always been fascinated by how the 1979 Revolution unfolded. One forgotten aspect was that some of the Ayatollah’s closest allies were young leftists students and feminists who wanted to liberate the country from the Western backed Shah. It’s a major reason I’m incredibly suspicious of the campus protests and general anti-Western bent of the modern progressive movement.
My recollection is that the leftists were allied with others who wanted to liberate Iran from Western (i.e. US) imperialism but left this coalition when the Ayatollah's took power. Moreover, the Ayatollah broke up this coalition when he exerted his new power against them. The left was willing to be inclusive in building an anti-imperialist pro-Iranian coalition. The Iranian clericalists were (and remain) intolerant and suspicious of democratic freedoms.
I saw this play out at the Univ of Mich where Iranian students doing research on Iran cooperated with each other to gain access to and share materials needed for their research. Shortly after the return of the Ayatollah this cooperation abruptly stopped. Leftist, secular, and Bahai Iranian students were expelled from this informal research collective.
I just want to join the others. Thank you for using the term "immoral". The final statement from the Group of 7 meeting which just took place in my country seemed mainly to address their care for the security of Israel which is immoral too. I am so tired of the forgetfulness and worse still the forgiveness of the crimes of allies.
There's also a much bigger, if at this time blurry, context. Since the implosion of the Soviet Union, I've been saying the demise of the US empire too is imaginable in the not far off future. Taking a step back from saturation news consumption, a trained mind can see the trend, but don't expect the end result to look anything like the Soviet collapse. The industrial/societal "hollowing out" of America that you pointed to is but one sign of a broader rot that is irreversible and totalizing. Sadly our leaders' self righteous (and bipartisan) exceptionalism means US military and financial aggression will spill ever more blood the closer we get to the end of America's global supremacy. Viewed through this lens, our multi trillion dollar post-1990 wars to force a unipolar order on the world are attempts to just slow the inevitable. We persist only because we correctly sense the approach of a reckoning.
In case you missed it, the foundational thesis of "Make America Great Again" agrees in no uncertain terms that 1) the US is in steep decline and 2) aggressive distractions like war with Iran are necessary to pretend we can slow the empire's decline.
Thank you, Peter. I'll add two things. One Trump's disregard for international law and norms parrallels his self-interested disregard for rule of law and constitutional norms in domestic U.S. policy. (I'd also argue that Biden's permissive policies toward Israel on Gaza opened the door to this, but that's a different matter). Two. one other consequence of being at war with Iran will be lkely be even furthr expansion of Trump's executive power in the name of national security or foreign policy goals, particularly as a backlash to protests and criticism.
I have thought for a long time that Americans writ large suhousands tffer from a failure of empathy and imagination. We can empathize with the kid next door who has cancer but we can't empathize with people we have to imagine.
Thank you, Peter,for such a clear, "not sophisticated" insights on America's myopic approach. I think it applies to domestic issues and international issues alike. It seems to be a byproduct of the culture of "fast food delivery," instant satisfaction, and "will cross that bridge when we get there.... etc."
And still on the Middle East, how many times, how many presidents, and how many meetings that concluded that the Palestinians deserve a viable state, that occupation is illegal, .... on and on. Then you get a congressman like Cruze, R- Texas, who claims that he got into Congress with the goal of defending Israel.... See his interview with Tucker Carlson a few days ago. ... "Because the Bible said so!"
To quote a line from 9th century Baghdad poet... "I never saw a colossal human failure, like the failure of who can do the greatest good and fail to do so." That is America, Akhi Peter.
Thank you for pointing out the price of ignoring the long term consequences of our immorality. Trump will likely be dead in another 10-15 years, and can't think beyond today. Now we kidnap and deport "undesirables" here and bomb or collude in killing abroad, with no "self defense" whatsoever. We gut the country of any programs that improve our lives in any way and do the same abroad. We silence and coerce the media, and anyone connected to the law. Our healthcare and that of our planet is on a downward collision. We re-set the norms so that mass shootings are now happening outside the US. And of course, we have no interest in learning from other countries who have decent healthcare and childcare and don't have homelessness, because then we would become socialist or communist, i.e. poor. That might be the worst fear of all for the current regime.
Thanks for thinking critically, unlike our current leadership in DC.
What a clear and layered analysis.
One really grave consequence that you failed to mention is the assault on the Constitution. Trump usurped powers he does not have. Trump has been usurping powers he does not have. Trump is shredding the constitution.
And this is happening when Maga nation and Christian nationalists are engaged in an all-out war on the constitution (as most recently evidenced in an award given to a Florida University Law student for a paper arguing that the US Constitution applies only to white people).
Allow me to draw from the wealth of Jewish traditions and suggest the following mantra for reflection and meditation: "OY GEWALT!!!"
Bravo Peter. Thank you for daring to bring up the moral argument. Almost old-fashioned, quaint. The moral argument is so often connected tolong-term thinking, too.
Wow! What a thoughtful and intelligent way to frame the unlawful bombing in Iran. From all perspectives!
The loss of human lives is heartbreaking and no one is morning those lives lost. Thank you so much!
Your observations about the time horizon is absolutely right. It also made me think of Israel's practice of "mowing the lawn." Israel was willing to accept very short time horizons of "success" at keeping Palestinian's in a helpless state by periodically carrying out operations designed to kill enough Palestinian fighters (with some collateral damage as well) that there was no serious threat to Israeli security.
Or so they thought, of course, until 10/7. After that, they had to rethink, and so they've come up with what they think will be a more permanent solution - expulsion, helped along in part by a genocide that will "motivate" some Palestinians in Gaza (for now - WB soon) to leave. But the practice of mowing the lawn has succeeded in desensitizing the Israeli Jewish populace to violence done to Palestinians - after all, most of them have participated in it during their mandatory time in the IDF.
Cheeto Uses Iran Attack to Bail Out of Domestic Issues
Orange Cheeto leaned into the Israeli Iran Conflict with his strongman mentality and initiated a bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities In a way with Israel having weakened the Iranian air defense with a large bombing campaign Cheeto decided that the risk would not be high to move ahead and help Netanyahu "finish the job" with the nuclear facility bombing The other factor is that Cheeto is taking domestic hits at home with his strongman immigration policies with losses in court so the “distract card” was played
Now we as a nation is hoping that this is it Cheeto elected to ignore the national intelligence community that Iran has enough enriched uranium to create an atomic bomb but did not have a bomb https://bit.ly/3GaRbBz This US attack will set back the Iranian uranium program for a year but not deter But Iran could have removed the enriched uranium to another secure site before the bombing occurred
Cheeto hopes that this is a one off but the Iranians are in this for the long haul This maybe another Iraq "weapons of mass destruction" except no one can prove that Cheeto was wrong that Iran had the bomb based on its enriched uranium stores But one thing is clear that Cheeto is going to go full bore on Iran hence America is at war
I grew up amongst the Persian diaspora in Los Angeles and have always been fascinated by how the 1979 Revolution unfolded. One forgotten aspect was that some of the Ayatollah’s closest allies were young leftists students and feminists who wanted to liberate the country from the Western backed Shah. It’s a major reason I’m incredibly suspicious of the campus protests and general anti-Western bent of the modern progressive movement.
My recollection is that the leftists were allied with others who wanted to liberate Iran from Western (i.e. US) imperialism but left this coalition when the Ayatollah's took power. Moreover, the Ayatollah broke up this coalition when he exerted his new power against them. The left was willing to be inclusive in building an anti-imperialist pro-Iranian coalition. The Iranian clericalists were (and remain) intolerant and suspicious of democratic freedoms.
I saw this play out at the Univ of Mich where Iranian students doing research on Iran cooperated with each other to gain access to and share materials needed for their research. Shortly after the return of the Ayatollah this cooperation abruptly stopped. Leftist, secular, and Bahai Iranian students were expelled from this informal research collective.
Thanks!
I just want to join the others. Thank you for using the term "immoral". The final statement from the Group of 7 meeting which just took place in my country seemed mainly to address their care for the security of Israel which is immoral too. I am so tired of the forgetfulness and worse still the forgiveness of the crimes of allies.
There's also a much bigger, if at this time blurry, context. Since the implosion of the Soviet Union, I've been saying the demise of the US empire too is imaginable in the not far off future. Taking a step back from saturation news consumption, a trained mind can see the trend, but don't expect the end result to look anything like the Soviet collapse. The industrial/societal "hollowing out" of America that you pointed to is but one sign of a broader rot that is irreversible and totalizing. Sadly our leaders' self righteous (and bipartisan) exceptionalism means US military and financial aggression will spill ever more blood the closer we get to the end of America's global supremacy. Viewed through this lens, our multi trillion dollar post-1990 wars to force a unipolar order on the world are attempts to just slow the inevitable. We persist only because we correctly sense the approach of a reckoning.
In case you missed it, the foundational thesis of "Make America Great Again" agrees in no uncertain terms that 1) the US is in steep decline and 2) aggressive distractions like war with Iran are necessary to pretend we can slow the empire's decline.
Thank you, Peter. I'll add two things. One Trump's disregard for international law and norms parrallels his self-interested disregard for rule of law and constitutional norms in domestic U.S. policy. (I'd also argue that Biden's permissive policies toward Israel on Gaza opened the door to this, but that's a different matter). Two. one other consequence of being at war with Iran will be lkely be even furthr expansion of Trump's executive power in the name of national security or foreign policy goals, particularly as a backlash to protests and criticism.
I have thought for a long time that Americans writ large suhousands tffer from a failure of empathy and imagination. We can empathize with the kid next door who has cancer but we can't empathize with people we have to imagine.
Brilliant , clear and something I feel like screaming!