Nationalism

Nationalism is a crazy thing. If you're a nationalist, no matter what nation you live in, your nation, by definition is always right. And anyone who opposes you is, by definition, wrong...or evil. I don't think it's even arguable that Iran wants to be the dominant power in the region. Of course they do...and so does Saudi Arabia...and the United States. Have they used their military and proxy militaries and militias to get their way? Sure they have. Why is it evil when they do it, but national self-interest when we do it? Why is Soleimani a terrorist when he kills American, Iraqi and coalition military, but no one bats an eye at all the civilian deaths that our military has caused? Not to mention that not only do we pardon war criminals, but our president prevents the military from enforcing any discipline. I'm not in favor of our men and women in uniform being killed, but then again, I'm not in favor of them invading other countries based on cherry-picked intelligence and shady motives either.

Arguably, the first overt move in an Iran-U.S. war was the assassination of Soleimani, but we have been waging economic war against Iran for over a year. Iran was complying with a multinational agreement that prevented them from developing nuclear weapons. Trump unilaterally tore up the agreement and imposed crippling economic sanctions on Iran. We are fortunate that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps hadn't started seriously hitting American targets before this. Trump initiated hostilities by cancelling the agreement, Trump escalated the situation by imposing sanctions, and now he's started a shooting war by this political hit.

According to Trump, the Iran Nuclear "Deal" was the worst ever (alongside NAFTA and all the other "worst deals"), even though its goals were being accomplished. Our own intelligence services and international monitors verified it. His withdrawal and imposition of sanctions was supposed to convince Iran to come back to the negotiating table and accept a new agreement more favorable to the U.S., although we never heard what that agreement might consist of. It was obvious to all (even though Trumpublicans wouldn't admit it) that withdrawing unilaterally from this and others would erode any trust that other countries would have  that we would honor our agreements. Iran wasn't predisposed to trust us in the first place, there was no way that they would ever sit down with us again. No one was (or should have been) surprised that Iran started ramping up covert and proxy attacks against Iraqi military, U.S. and coalition forces and international shipping. I still haven't decided whether Trump, influenced by Bolton and Pompeo, wanted this all along - an excuse to bomb Iran into the Stone Age, or he's just that stupid. It's a toss-up.

For now, we get to listen to the crazy man in the White House spout nonsense while his sycophantic supporters call us unhinged and unpatriotic.