Will Trump’s failed Iran war provoke his break from Netanyahu’s ironclad grip?

Will Trump’s failed Iran war provoke his break from Netanyahu’s ironclad grip?

On Iran war day 71 its clear Trump has not only lost his war, he’s blundered the world into a looming economic catastrophe. As horrendous as that is, it wasn’t even Trump’s idea. Trump was simply following orders from his real boss, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On February 11, Netanyahu arrived at the White House with Mossad Director David Barnea. They encouraged if not demanded invasion. The Netanyahu-Barnea tag team argued Iran would collapse within a couple of days from a combination of assassinating Iran’s leader Ali Khamenei, massive bombing, Mossad-fomented civil unrest and ground incursions by Kurdish fighters.

That couple of days has morphed into 71 days of arguably the greatest military disaster in US history. Instead of collapsing within a couple of days, Iran retaliated against the massive US, Israeli bombing onslaught with their own. Result? All 13 US bases in the neighboring Gulf States are damaged or destroyed. Gulf States infrastructure has suffered massive damage. So has Israel, suffering its worst bombing in its 78 years.

Worst of all, Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz of Hormuz, choking off a fifth of world oil supply which may cause a worldwide recession, if not depression. The Netanyahu-Barnea presentation was a blizzard of lies Trump swallowed whole in spite of Intelligence assessments to the contrary.

As the world careens toward economic catastrophe, Trump is completely out of options to achieve any of this war goals. Check that. Friday he alluded to striking Iran with nuclear weapons. Trump told reporters on whether the ceasefire if off: "If there's no ceasefire you're just going to have to look at one big glow coming out of Iran."

Assuming he either doesn’t order nuclear strikes, or his military commanders disobey this directive to do so, Trump is facing the worst military defeat in America’s 250 years, all brought on by his fealty to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What motivated Trump’s caving to the Israeli Prime Minister? Was it the hundreds of millions in campaign cash showered upon Trump and his Republican Congress? Was it the ‘Epstein Button’, damaging evidence related to the Epstein pedophile enterprise that Trump dare not risk being exposed? Is Trump simply an ardent Zionist believing that any Israeli murder and mayhem to further Israeli expansion and Middle East dominance is worthy of Trump’s enabling?

While we’ll likely never know, Trump must be contemplating the enormity of the disaster he’s inflicted on the Middle East, and very soon the US and entire world. The one benefit that may result from Trump’s immoral, criminal war is he may be rethinking his special relationship with the man who brought on the greatest calamity of his life, Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump needs to truly become the peace president he campaigned to be in 2016. He can do that by quitting his senseless and lost Iran war. He needs to jettison his subservience to Netanyahu’s vision of Greater Israel. He needs to cut off all US military aid to Israel till Netanyahu or his successor end the genocide in Gaza, near genocide in Lebanon and quest to destroy its hegemonic rival Iran.

If Trump refuses to do the right thing, events on the battlefield and the world economy may push Trump aside and hopefully implement that peace initiative without him.

Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL

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Three Chicago Tribune letters offer no insignt to Trump's failed Iran war

The Chicago Tribune broke a long silence on the most important issue facing America, indeed the world, with three letters on Trump’s failed Iran war degrading the world economy. Alas, they provided virtually no insight into the enormity of Trump’s reckless war going so badly he even hinted today he might nuke Iran. No kidding. Trump told reporters Friday on whether the ceasefire if off: “If there’s no ceasefire you’re just going to have to look at one big glow coming out of Iran.”

But today’s three letters provide nothing of value to understand the unfolding disaster engulfing the Middle East and world economy.

Bruce Hovanec (Criticism of Trump over Iran) offers support for keeping US troops in the region when the war ends by citing our keeping troops in Europe and Korea decades after those wars ended. He’s apparently unaware all US Gulf States bases have been destroyed or damaged badly enough for troops stationed there to be evacuated.

Dave Coyne (Bombing Iran into submission) accurately notes that bombing virtually never works in achieving victory and won’t in Iran. But Coyne is simply stating what is obvious to anyone following the utterly failed 39 day US bombing campaign. Coyne suggests that only nukes could achieve a US victory, “but Trump would have to be crazy to do that.” Based on Trump’s quote today, we can’t rule that out.

Dave Schuchardt (Time to end the war in Iran) argues the US should quit the war because ”If we can believe what we’ve been told, the damage to critical parts of Iran’s nuclear capabilities has accomplished our major concern.” That is utterly untrue because we cannot believe on word of the blizzard of lies coming from Trump and his self-proclaimed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The truth to any objective war observer is that Iran’s military and civilian infrastructure is intact and ready for any resumption of US bombing.

On this 70th day of Trump’s failed war to collapse the Iranian regime, the Chicago Tribune needs a refresher course on publishing accurate and insightful reader commentary.

Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL

Combatants must address root causes to end Ukraine, Iran wars

 Combatants must address root causes to end Ukraine, Iran wars

Ukraine cannot win its war with Russia, now in its 51st month. Why? Russia will never allow Ukraine to join NATO which would allow NATO nukes on Russia’s borders to weaken, isolate Russia from the European political economy. Nor will Russia give back the Donbas containing mostly Russian leaning Ukrainians being brutalized and killed for 8 years prior to the Russian invasion. 

Isolating, weakening Russia while ignoring Russia’s security concerns represent the root causes of the war which for Russia is an existential threat to their national security.  The Biden administration knew both threats would provoke a Russian invasion but did so anyway figuring war would weaken, if not collapse Russia. 

The opposite occurred. Russia has prospered both economically and militarily while Ukraine is a failed state near collapse and totally supported by hundreds of billions in US, NATO aid. But even a trillion in aid will not prevent Ukraine’s inevitable defeat. 

Russia always preferred the West negotiate the war’s root cause, their sensible security demands both for themselves and their Russian speaking Ukrainian brethren. While the US is not averse to this now, European NATO countries continue to pour tens of billions into the lost cause to weaken, isolate Russia. Therefore, Russia is committed to resolve the root causes of the war on the battlefield.

All this could have been avoided in November 2021 if the Biden administration had the decency and common sense to negotiate Russia’s national security interests, the root cause of their invasion three months later.  

Failure to address the root causes of war also applies to the current US, Israeli war against Iran. For Israel the root cause of the war has nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program which is not developing a nuclear weapon. It is simply Israel’s lust to destroy Iran as a hegemonic rival for Middle East supremacy. The US, supplying most of the fire power, has no dog in Israel’s quest. We can only lament that Israel exerts such malicious control over the Trump administration that it willingly engaged in suicidal war to please Israel. 

Just like with Ukraine, the US attack had the opposite effect of a quick collapse of our imagined enemy. Iran prepared a robust defense that has largely destroyed US Gulf States bases, inflicted heavy damage on Israel and Gulf States oil infrastructure. Unless the root causes of Israel’s quest to destroy Iran and Iran’s determination to survive intact are addressed, the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, possibly crashing the world economy. 

The war in Ukraine now in its 51st month, and war in Iran now in its 3rd month, will not be resolved till the root causes of both are addressed. Neither the US, NATO nor Israel show any desire to bring peace by addressing them.  

Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL 

Trump claims his mass murder in the Caribbean saved a million American lives…real number 0

 Trump claims his mass murder in the Caribbean saved a million American lives…real number 0

President Trump sure loves committing mass murder worldwide. Gaza, Iran, Somalia, Niger, Iraq, Yemen, Venezuela are among nations he’s victimized with violent murder. Add in countries like Cuba where he’s essentially murdering innocents with life suffocating sanctions, he’s racked up tens if not over a hundred thousand deaths in 6 years exercising his presidential License To Kill.

While bombing innocents worldwide was practiced by all presidents since at least Bill Clinton, Trump is unique in ordering mass murder bombing of small boats in the Caribbean. He ghoulishly lunched Operation Southern Spear in the Caribbean last September. In the past 8 months Trump, playing Long John Silver instead of a decent world leader, has blasted 54 little boats to smithereens, sending 185 innocents to Davy Jones Locker.

His justification? ‘Oh they’re certainly running fentanyl and cocaine to the Homeland killing millions of Americans.’ Trump claims the boats were all part of 24 narco terrorist cartels but couldn’t name a single one. When a couple of Trump’s targets survived the bombing, Trump’s military polished them off with another murderous salvo. ‘Can’t let these stinkin’ narco terrorists floating around gathering up the drug packages floating nearby’ was the justification for instant execution.

Trump lies shamelessly about everything. But his Whoppers about the bombings dwarf anything Burger King could cook up. Trump claims “Drugs entering our country by sea are down 97 percent.” More absurd, Trump calculates each boat he obliterates saves 25,000 American lives. Both figures are so preposterous one must ponder where he pulls them from.

Funny, if drugs arrivals are down 97%, one might conclude that border drug seizures would be similarly down. Yet, Customs and Border Protection note that seizures at U.S. borders and along coasts have increased from 38,000 lbs. to 44,000 lbs. (16%) in the 7 months following Trump’s mass murder spree compared to the 7 months before it began. In drug crazed America, usage is up, prices are stable and supply is plentiful.

But with Trump stiring the Ship of State, state sponsored murder is up, prices of everything legal are escalating, and display of decency, morality and common sense is nowhere to be found.

Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition

Trump’s ‘Epic Fury’ has morphed into ‘Epic Flop’

 Trump’s ‘Epic Fury’ has morphed into ‘Epic Flop’

It’s impossible to unpack the deranged logic of Donald J. Trump. He launched his criminal war on Iran with criminal Israeli war buddy Benjamin Netanyahu on February 28. Netanyahu promised quick victory within 100 hours based on assassinating Iranian leader Ali Khomeini.

A thousand hours later, after Iran inflicted tremendous damage to all 13 US Gulf States bases, war partner Israel and the world economy, Trump essentially surrendered by implementing a ceasefire without a hint of achieving a single war objective.

But defeat is not an option for Trump so he immediately broke the ceasefire by declaring a blockade on Iran’s blockade of oil and critical world goods traversing the Strait of Hormuz. Iran retaliated by withdrawing any negotiation to reopen the Strait. In Trump’s disintegrating brain, the path to victory is speeding up collapse of the world economy by stopping all Iranian oil shipments to friendly nations like India and China not trying to destroy it.

Problem is Trump’s blockade on Iran’s blockade will no more collapse the Iranian regime than his thousand hour bombing campaign. Dozens of Iranian ships have skirted the US blockade by hugging the Iranian coast line. US ships dare not get closer to Iran than about 150 miles or risk being rerouted to Davy Jones Locker by Iranian missiles and drones. Even if they could the US simply does not have enough ships nearby to adequately choke off sufficient Iranian tankers to achieve Iran’s collapse.

Meanwhile Israel and its American Lobby are pounding on Trump to unleash a new, more vigorous bombing campaign. That could happen any day. Iran is ready and poised to destroy the remaining Gulf States oil infrastructure they missed in the war’s first thousand hours. Then watch the world economy collapse faster than Trump can claim at 3:00 A.M. on Truth Social ‘AMERICA WINS AGAIN…SEND NOBEL PEACE PRIZE TO TRUMP C/O MAR-A-LAGO.’

Walt Zlotow West Suburban Peace Coalition Glen Ellyn IL

Nice going Mr. President

 Nice going Mr. President

Trump's failed, criminal Iran war just threw 17,000 Spirit Airlines employees on unemployment. That is just the beginning unless Trump surrenders to Iran's sensible terms:

1. Renounce war on behalf of Israel to destroy Iran

2. End all economic sanctions on Iran

3. Pay reparations for damage caused by thousands of US bombs that killed over 3,000 Iranians including 1,500 kids

4. Get out of the Middle East since all 13 Gulf States bases are damaged if not destroyed

Walt Zlotow  West Suburban Peace Coalition  Glen Ellyn IL