“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”—Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784.
“Why of course the people don’t want war. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”—Hermann Wilhelm Göring,1893-1946, Reichsmarschall, Nazi Germany. Göring would later use cyanide to end his own life, hours before his scheduled execution for crimes against humanity.
“Mission accomplished.” – George W. Bush, proclaiming on May 1, 2003, that the Iraq invasion was over. In fact, the Iraq War would continue throughout the remainder of his administration, costing the lives of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Today, the Iraqi government is both influenced by and supportive of Iran, something that was not the case before the invasion.
“The Taliban regime is coming to an end.”—George W. Bush, 2001. After 20 years, hundreds of billions of dollars, and 4 U.S. Presidential Administrations, the Taliban is again firmly in charge of Afghanistan, and in many ways more brutal to the Afghan people than prior to the U.S. invasion.
“There are many, many outcomes. We can do the short version or the long version.”—donald trump, March 1, 2026, in describing his “plans” for Iran following the U.S. attack.
“This will be the final message from Saigon station. It has been a long fight and we have lost. Those who fail to learn from history are forced to repeat it. Let us hope that we will not have another Vietnam experience and that we have learned our lesson. Saigon signing off.”—Teletype communication from Thomas Polgar (1922-2014), CIA Bureau Chief for South Viet Nam, sent sometime after midnight May 1, 1975. Moments later, Polgar destroyed the teletype machine, climbed a flight of stairs to the roof of the U.S. Embassy, and was one of the last Americans evacuated from Saigon.
“The only thing we learn from history, is that no one ever learns from history.”—Otto von Bismark, First Chancellor of the Empire of Germany.
“Stupid is as stupid does.”—Forrest Gump, fictional shrimp entrepreneur.
Well America, welcome to Ground Hog Day. Here we go again. We’re at war.
Over the past 65 years we’ve shown the world we are unparalleled when it comes to blowing things up. But we’re not so great at rebuilding things once we do.
History is replete with strongmen who start wars to cover up their own failings. Sometimes people see through it. More often, as Göring noted, they don’t.
Cynics will be quick to point out the glaring red flags in the American attack on Iran, and point to its apparent connections to covering up presidential failings. The president is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl (with records alluding to this now somehow missing from the Epstein files). trump’s popularity is at an all-time low. Inflation is rising. Jobs are disappearing. Essential goods are becoming more and more unaffordable to millions of Americans. And all the while, elite billionaires hold increasing sway over the levers of government.
Think whatever you want about all of this, but the optics are horrible. And it’s pretty much in keeping with the hypocrisy of the trump presidency.
A Latin American leader gets abducted in a military raid, allegedly for exporting drugs, shortly after trump pardoned another Latin American president who had actually been convicted of exporting drugs to the U.S.
Millions of dollars of Medicaid support for Minnesota are being withheld over alleged fraud, after trump commuted the sentence of an already-convicted Florida Medicaid/Medicare fraudster who raked in billions.
And now, the decision to attack a country that has posed no threat to the U.S., purportedly because that country killed thousands of its own citizens, while ignoring the much greater threat posed by a four-year invasion of a sovereign nation by the dictator Putin, who’s caused the deaths of millions.
Over the past year, trump has cut off both military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. For reference, the Ukrainians have been defending their country without the help of foreign troops. Not a single American soldier has been killed in Ukraine.
Already, three have been killed in trump’s war with Iran. By the time you read this, there will likely be more.
Why is trump attacking a country that poses no threat to the U.S., while ignoring a much greater threat from his comrade Putin? Why does he care so much about thousands killed in Iran, but apparently cares nothing about the millions of casualties in Ukraine? Whatever the reason, one thing is certain. It’s disgraceful.
The stability of the first 20 years after World War II was built on American-led reconstruction, rather than destruction. The Marshall Plan funneled billions into Europe. It helped secure a bulwark against communism that set the stage for its eventual downfall. It didn’t fire a single shot, and it didn’t get a single American killed. (General George C. Marshall, the Secretary of State under President Harry Truman, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for these efforts. One can only imagine if trump had been president. He’d likely have demanded that it be called the “trump Plan” and insisted the Nobel go to him. I doubt he’d even understand the sage words of Truman, my fellow Missourian, who said “it’s pretty amazing what you can get done when you’re not worrying about who’s going to get the credit.”)
But regardless, America has now cast its die with this war. A worsening economy, a squeezed middleclass, and bankrupt farmers will take a back seat to the latest “news” out of Iran. Putin could well use this opportunity to further push his murder, rape, and criminal invasion of Ukraine.
History has shown that all military action picks up at least some patriotic support in the short term. That’s what Johnson, and for that matter Göring, knew all too well. trump’s decline in the polls will likely stabilize. Attention will shift off the economy and the pedophile allegations, and onto a “patriotic” war.
Whether this will be enough to push trump-endorsed candidates to victory in the midterms remains to be seen. Whether enough people will buy in to the conflict to allow him to remain in office after 2028 is also uncertain.
As a child, I remember my mother taking me to a Southern Baptist church, where I heard people routinely pray that God would bring about the downfall of communism. Not once did I hear anyone pray about what would come next.
I also remember learning a parable Jesus supposedly told. It was about a man possessed by a demon. The man went to his local exorcist, paid the usual and customary fee, had the demon driven out, and went happily on his way.
Meanwhile, the demon wandered off into the desert, where he encountered two other demons. “The house where I used to dwell is now empty,” the first demon said. “Let’s all go back there together.”
The demons did just that. And the man who exorcised his demon, but replaced it with nothing to prevent its return, was worse off than before.
You can believe the parable if you want, but the parallels are hard to ignore. America has no equal when it comes to blowing up what we claim to be demons. But we’re also guilty of leaving the house empty, and allowing even worse demons to reemerge.
We have entered a dangerous time for our country and the world. What demons will be driven out, what demons will be ignored, and what demons will return with a vengeance remains to be seen. If there was ever a time when the three branches of government, the checks and balances imaged over two hundred years ago by our founders, need to work together to calm the fear, prejudice, and anger fomented by the scoundrels Johnson warned us about, it is now.
What the future holds is seriously in question. We’d better start thinking about what comes next.
Saigon signing off.