It is hard to know if this is Trump's usual bluster or genuine self-delusion! The only country making loads of money on this will be Iran. As to a "Golden Age" in the Middle East like that in the US: there is no such thing in the US, and Israel is making much of the Middle East suffer terribly.
In 1985, making 25k/yr in Chicago, got a lovely house on the Fox River an hour north of my job, for 50k. Who can buy a house for just twice their salary today?
I wonder when Trump's delusional view of reality will catch up to him. Could it be when oil hits $150 and he still insists that has no effect on us?
It says a LOT about the quality of life in America and the US's standing in the world that NOT ONE of the top 20 airports in the world is in the US. Tokyo, Seoul, Vancouver, Munich, Paris, London, Vancouver but none here. www.afar.com/magazine/bes...
4/Did anyone tell Trump this? Doesn't anyone tell the American people what we have started?
3/Iran's economy is 24th largest in the world: roughly same as Australia, larger than the Netherlands. This is a country with resources for war. More than 3x the economy and 2x the population of Ukraine, which is doing pretty well against Russia. And drone technology so good it supplies Russia.
2/Iran's pop is 92 million. Iran today, for all its troubles, is a much larger, MUCH richer country, with a larger scientific/professional/military, than Iraq in 2003. THIS IS NOT A PUSHOVER. Just showed they now have ballistic missiles that can reach European capitals. ...
1/ America began a war with Iran - but did Trump or Congress have any idea of the country the US was attacking? In 2000, before the US invasion, Iraq had a GDP of $312 B (PPP in constant 2021 Int. $). Population was 24.4 million. In 2024, Iran's GDP was $1.6 TRILLION (by the same metric)...
People are numb to these numbers. But the $200 Billion being asked "to kill bad guys" is $600 for every single man, woman and child in America. $2,400 TAKEN from every family of four.
Trump promised to give money to Americans; now he is taking it away.
For 45 years, the US gov has had revenues of roughly 17% of GDP, while spending amounted to 20% of GDP or more. THAT is the cause of the national debt: 3% of GDP/year x 45 = 135% of GDP, what the national debt is today ($39 trillion). Taxes on the rich were cut in 1980 and never restored.
Israel clearly wants a forever war. Ali Larijani is one of the few Iranian leaders with sufficient credibilty with the military and the pragmatic streak to be able to negotiate a peace agreement with the US. Killing him makes it certain the military will double down and fight to the bitter end.
10/Outcomes of those vast expenditures of US lives and money: Communist Vietnam (north & south) is thriving; Iraq is a Shia-led state closer to Iran than the US; Afghanistan again ruled by the Taliban. Iran will likely squeeze the world economy until the US agrees to a better deal for its future.
9/As war drags on without achievement of any goals, while world economy is dragged down, US will face "escalation trap" of digging in and looking for a way to "win". Trump may be just the next President after Johnson, GW Bush, Biden to have their presidency defined by a failed, "endless" war.
8/Iran war is thus looking more and more like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan: hastily entered with lack of preparation for what would follow, with vast ignorance of the enemy and the battlefield. Falling back on counts of ships, factories, missile sites "killed" as false evidence of progress or wins.
7/ US had the advantage of attacking an illegitimate, hated regime in Iran. But by killing school girls and bombing UNESCO heritage sites, US/Israel have shown just as little regard for Iranian people and their values as the Iranian regime. So they are rapidly losing any moral ground or advantage.
6/ Iran knows it can keep the pressure on global oil and fertilizer prices and hurt the world economy longer than Trump can keep bombing. History shows clearly that bombing can be a helpful FIRST STEP to weaken an adversary in preparation for later ground combat. By itself, just increases resolve.
5/ Iran can keep the Strait closed indefinitely. All it takes is a few drones on trucks on Iranian roads near the Strait, or even soldiers with shoulder-mounted anti-ship missiles standing near the shore. The ONLY way to stop this is by occupying the Iranian territory adjacent to the Strait.
4/ Yet the US had NO anti-mine naval forces operating in the area & no plans and ships in place to escort merchant vessels through the Strait. They seem shocked (shocked!) that Iran would close the Strait - so stunned that Trump maintained that the Strait was open even as ships were set ablaze.
3/Meanwhile, US&Israel seem completely unprepared for the risk that Iran might absorb the punishment and strike back, not simply by using missiles and drones to attack US and allied bases, but by closing off the Strait of Hormuz. Again, ALL experts had warned for decades about this risk.
2/ all experts also warned that if the regime fell, a hardline military regime was just as likely to emerge as a moderate or democratic regime. Now that such a regime has emerged, and no regime collapse is in sight, US & Israel seem to have no fallback plan but to keep on bombing.
A few thoughts on the Iran war: 1/seems as if the entire Israeli/US strategy was based on belief that a "shock and awe" bombing campaign would quickly lead the regime to collapse. That was stupid: all experts (including me) said that while the regime was weakened, foreign attacks might revive it. ..
If Iran's nuclear capacity was "totally obliterated," as Trump maintained after the first attacks last year, why did we need to to strike now to stop an 'imminent threat." Lie after lie....
Clear why Trump & GOP are panicked about midterms. If Dems win, not only Trump, but also Bondi & Noem will be impeached for gross dereliction of duty. Possibly Hegseth for violation of laws of war and Lutnick for lying to Congress.
Naked lying, just because Trump loves oil and coal -- his ideal world is the world of the 1950s. "As a matter of fact, China has more wind and solar capacity than any other country in the world with twice as much capacity under construction than the rest of the world combined" (Forbes)
Trump admin now blames racist primate posting of Obamas on a staffer. Yet no one has been identified and disavowed or fired. So FBI & DoJ can't find the person who posted that meme on Trump's Truth Social website? Really? Means either Trump posted it or is OK with it and defending whoever did.
4/More concrete: non-college educated men had same life expectancy as college men in 1970. Now their life expectancy is 10 YEARS LESS. THAT is the loss in the last 50 years, despite small increases in purchasing power. Ignorance from elites like Wash Post ed. page is what brought us MAGA.
3/Extreme example: In 6 years 2019-2025, Jeff Bezos's wealth more than doubled, increasing $125 billion. But US workers are supposed to be content because their hourly wages can buy 13.8% more than in 2006. NO. And while TVs and cars may be cheaper, key things like health care and housing are not.
2/In this view US workers should be grateful for any crumbs of growth, while the rest of the economy and the top 10% (esp. top 1%/0.1%) grab the vast majority of growth and race past them. That's why US workers are NOT content, and are voting for change, whether for Trump in 2024 or now against him.
1/ WashPost editorial says "new data make clear that 21st century Americans can still be content about how far they’ve come." The data? A 13.8% increase in purchasing power per hour of work since 2006. That's a miserable 0.6%/yr, while US real GDP was growing 45% in those years, 3 times faster. ...
