Sing, O Muse, of the Rage of Donald Trump! |
Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Donald Trump, twice-elected, much valorized by his cabinet, much despised by his foes. Sing of his fleets and his planes and his bombs, and how they battered, but could not change the regime in Tehran. Sing of his pride, his thirst for glory, and the hundreds of ships trapped at anchor in the Gulf…
The war in Iran is not a Greek tragedy, but we must admit that it has all the elements of a great one. There’s a prideful president, who listens mostly to his ego and is driven by a need for greatness and legacy. He overreaches in a disastrous war, abandoning his promises, splintering his following, and bringing unnecessary pain and destruction to the world.
Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Donald Trump, twice-elected, much valorized by his cabinet, much despised by his foes. Sing of his fleets and his planes and his bombs, and how they battered, but could not change the regime in Tehran. Sing of his pride, his thirst for glory, and the hundreds of ships trapped at anchor in the Gulf…
The war in Iran is not a Greek tragedy, but we must admit that it has all the elements of a great one. There’s a prideful president, who listens mostly to his ego and is driven by a need for greatness and legacy. He overreaches in a disastrous war, abandoning his promises, splintering his following, and bringing unnecessary pain and destruction to the world.
And as in so many Greek tragedies, the root cause of this disaster is hubris. Many have remarked on how curious it is that a president whose election was based on railing against the stupidity of the United States’ wars in the Middle East would choose to start such a war himself.
But where voters heard Trump criticize unpopular wars, it turns out that he was mostly criticizing his predecessors. As U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters after last year’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites, “The difference is that back then, we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national security objectives.”
We might laugh at such hubris, but the first year of Trump’s second term largely confirmed this notion in the minds of Trump and those around him. Airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, the seizure of President Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela, and even a brief air campaign against the Houthis in Yemen were moderately successful punitive expeditions. They might not have been groundbreaking strategic achievements, but they showcased impressive tactical precision by U.S.........