Trump said you can measure a presidency by the wars you avoid, and for once he was right. Saturday's Iran bombing was the exclamation point on his abject failure
Trump is copying dictators from Mussolini to Putin in seeking glory through pointless war. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/dona…— Will Bunch (@willbunch.bsky.social) June 22, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Will Bunch, at the Philadelphia Inquirer – “A mad king’s pointless war is where Donald Trump was always heading”:
“We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”
— Donald Trump’s second inaugural address, Jan. 20In a sense, you gotta hand it to Donald Trump. America’s 45th and 47th president — and first dictator — may have made 30,573 false or misleading claims in his first term, but he started his second term with arguably the most prescient and honest words he’s uttered since descending from his golden escalator 10 years and one week ago.
A mad king’s impulsive, unchecked decision on Saturday to send waves of U.S. B-2 bombers halfway around the globe to drop the world’s most powerful nonnuclear bombs on three targets inside Iran is indeed a perfect way to measure Trump’s success after just over five months back in the White House.
And by every measure, Trump 47 has been an abject failure.
One week after 5 million Americans flooded the streets for a massive “No Kings” protest, with his approval rating heading underwater faster than the next climate-fueled flash flood, with his masked-secret-police deportation drive starting to alienate his own voters, with gas prices and 20-something unemployment starting to soar, and almost zero legislation despite GOP control of Congress, Trump showed that even a POTUS who hates canines can still wag the dog.
It took another epic failure — the inability of any of America’s democratic institutions since World War II to constrain the war-making abilities of an “imperial president,” which is a polite euphemism for “emperor” — to give Trump this option: to try and reinvent his disastrous reign by picking up the phone and ordering death and destruction 6,500 miles away…
The current wave of death in both Iran and Israel probably could have been avoided if not for another arbitrary and pointless Trump decision: to rip up Obama’s Iran deal in 2018. Not because that made the world safer. But because Trump — who showed his true self yet again last week in failing to observe the federal Juneteenth holiday — was on a mission to undo every achievement of the first Black president.
The truth is that another foreign war is always where Trump was going to take America, no matter what horse manure about world peace he spread during his 2024 presidential campaign. That’s because starting wars is what ego-driven personalist “strongmen” do — to stake their dubious claim on both national and personal greatness, to change the focus from domestic disasters and the suffering of their own people, and to create the perfect excuse to silence dissent and a free press in “the homeland.”…
This is not a time for Americans to “rally ‘round the flag” — not for a war being waged on behalf of one American and not the other 339,999,999. This is a moment for resistance and for accountability, in whatever ways are possible today, and more forcefully once the people can take our country back. And it starts with this basic understanding: that Trump is revealing the fallacy behind “strongman” rule.
He bombed Iran because he is a weak man.
Spanky
I’m not a fan of the “mad” appellation. “Stupid”, ok. “Evil”, ok. “Sundowning”, ok. I just don’t think he’s crazy crazy
Yeah, that’s more like it.
They Call Me Noni
You would think that after this he would have zero support from Republicans in Congress or MAGA, but we know better. He’s disgusting and I didn’t think I could hate him more. I was wrong. I cannot conceive of a punishment that would be enough.
Old Man Shadow
Read this for my meditation this morning. Seemed app:
Weapons are the tools of violence;
all decent men detest them.
Weapons are the tools of fear;
a decent man will avoid them
except in the direst necessity
and, if compelled, will use them
only with the utmost restraint.
Peace is his highest value.
If the peace has been shattered,
how can he be content?
His enemies are not demons,
but human beings like himself.
He doesn’t wish them personal harm.
Nor does he rejoice in victory.
How could he rejoice in victory
and delight in the slaughter of men?
Baud
@They Call Me Noni:
He hasn’t betrayed bigotry yet. That’s the only red line.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Old Man Shadow: Tao Te Ching – still as relevant as ever, after over two thousand years.
They Call Me Noni
@Baud: He would if that were the only choice he had to save himself. At his very core he is an egomaniac. He’s never done anything out of the goodness or generosity of his heart. He doesn’t know what compassion is. Everything he does is transactional and in service to himself.
If he were capable of real feelings he would be miserable.
mrmoshpotato
And what about how stupid Dump looks in a suit wearing that stupid red ballcap?
A toddler would have better sense than to do that.
Trivia Man
@mrmoshpotato: it is still jarring – our president is so fixated on what pretty hair should look like, he refuses to be allow his hair to be shown if it isnt perfect. No other part if his wardrobe is more important
Professor Bigfoot
@Old Man Shadow: It’s beautiful— may I ask where it came from
edited: Ah, the Tao Te Ching as Formerly Disgruntled said. And yes, it is absolutely spot on.
Harrison Wesley
Will Bunch. Another reason I miss Philly.
Spanky
“Operation Midnight Hammer”. I swear they have 10 year-olds making this shit up.
They Call Me Noni
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Which means we have not evolved. How very sad and tragic.
JoyceH
@mrmoshpotato: Sigh, the ball cap! I hate ball caps, all ball caps, no matter what they say on them. They’re not fashionable, they’ve been around for decades, they’re sure as heck not flattering, nobody in the world looks better when they put a ball cap on their head. They survive because they’re cheap. Organizations can slap their logo on them and give them out for free at expos and conventions, the famous “gimme cap”. Somewhere around here I’ve got a Farm Bureau gimme cap. Can’t even remember where I got it, and I’ve sure as all heck never worn it. As for Trump, he never wore a hat of any type at all until he started running for office and started making outdoor appearances where his ridiculous hair could get mussed. And now – here we are.
And I cannot believe that we’ve bombed a Muslim country on blatantly bogus WMD claims for the second time in a quarter century. Anyone who can afford it, retrofit your house and transport with renewables, we’re gonna need it.
cope
@They Call Me Noni: We have not evolved and are, apparently, not evolving. I am hopeful on a personal scale that things will improve but from a global/species point of view, I am not.
mrmoshpotato
@Trivia Man: And he probably thinks that pissed-colored cotton candy crap actually looks good.
TONYG
@Spanky: Yes. A weak man who has never experienced war, and who famously faked an ailment to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam. The military personnel who fight the war are just the hired help, to be abandoned after they’ve been used.
Jackie
@They Call Me Noni:
Rep Massie isn’t a fan… and FFOTUS isn’t a fan of Massie! LOL
Article from RawStory.
mrmoshpotato
@JoyceH:
The hatred of ball caps is strong with this one. 😁
What about to shield your eyes in the outfield on a sunny day? 😁
Yes, I am currently watching baseball.
Jackie
@TONYG:
Suckers and Losers
sab
Trump didn’t do this all by himself. The Republicans in the Senate approved a lot of the people enabling him.
Harrison Wesley
@Jackie: I didn’t think it was possible for me to like Massie…..
Harrison Wesley
@TONYG: Not fair! He’ll cheer them on while he watches it all on TV.
NotMax
@JoyceH
Before I put on the glasses I wear when my eyes are bleary from lack of sleep, read “Organizations” as “Orangutans.”
:)
eclare
@JoyceH:
Couldn’t agree more about ball caps. When I was in college, and we wanted to hide our hair for an early class or whatever, we used red bandannas tied around our heads. Much better looking than a ball cap, on both men and women.
Baud
Oops
NotMax
@Harrison Wesley
Cue Randy Newman.
Boom goes London
And boom Paree
More room for you
And more room for me
;
trollhattan
@Spanky:
“We’re never gonna score.”
—Beavis
trollhattan
@Baud:
There goes launching our ground invasion from Pakistan. “We’re moderately miffed.”
Harrison Wesley
@Baud: That will leave a mark.
Baud
Everytime I read about the US bombing Fordo, I wonder why Iran names their nuclear facilities after LOTR characters.
eclare
@mrmoshpotato:
Panama hat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_hat
Or a safari hat. I have a waterproof safari hat.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JoyceH: I always thought it was bad manners for a man to wear a hat indoors except in public places like airports etc.
eclare
@Harrison Wesley:
I know!
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Maybe Rep. Massie would like to join the democratic caucus.
Jackie
@Baud:
Oh please please puleeez! LOL
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
It was, and is. And little else looks stupider than wearing the cap backwards indoors.
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It definitely is.
2liberal
I look better when wearing a ball cap.
Professor Bigfoot
@mrmoshpotato: They survive because they work.
If you’re driving with the top down, you need something to shade your eyes.
If the rest of your wardrobe consists of jeans, shorts and t-shirts, a classic “flat cap”— heck, ANY other hat style just looks wrong.
BUT— at least I take mine off indoors, unlike most of these neanderthal philistines. (insert snooty vampire meme)
Harrison Wesley
@Dorothy A. Winsor: If you never outgrew movies from 60+ years ago, men wearing hats indoors seems perfectly normal.
JoyceH
@mrmoshpotato:Baseball players can wear baseball caps. The rest of us should act like grownups and get a hat with a brim that goes all the way around. When I walk outside I wear a wide-brimmed bucket hat. Not only shades your eyes, it keeps the back of your neck from sunburn, and protects the top of your head from ticks that fall down from the trees.
Harrison Wesley
@Baud: And they can’t even spell it right.
pat
Can I go back to something that I brought up on the last thread, which seems to be dead now…
Did Iran remove uranium from these sites (it seems they did) and did dump and kegseath KNOW that there wasn’t any uranium where they were bombing?
This seems important.
NotMax
@2liberal
Is it B-J After Dark already?
Oh, you mean baseball cap. :)
cope
@Dorothy A. Winsor: My fall-back comment to high school students in my classes when they failed to take hats off was “My mom taught me that a gentleman removes his hat when he is inside”.
Baud
@Harrison Wesley:
Farsi spelling is hard.
jimmiraybob
Two points.
1) do not go anywhere near Trump properties.
2) review your draft status.
Professor Bigfoot
@JoyceH: I love fedoras, but my standard uniform these days consists of t-shirts.
I just think anything other than a ballcap looks even more ridiculous when paired with an alumni t-shirt. 😉
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: Nah, fuck that guy! ;-)
Mr. Bemused Senior
@NotMax: I saw Randy Newman perform Political Science live during the W administration. He introduced it by saying “I wrote this a long time ago. It’s finally become policy.”
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@They Call Me Noni: We were human then, and we’re human still.
NotMax
@Professor Bigfoot
Straw boater?
;)
Jackie
@WaterGirl: LOL!
How to get Democrats to support an otherwise MAGA representative in Dark Red Kentucky?
The petty ego of a tissue paper-thin skinned man-baby.
Harrison Wesley
I didn’t think about headgear until I moved to Florida. I have a cap my nephew gave me, but I really prefer my Havana hat; light enough to let my head get some air while shading my eyes. No, I don’t wear it indoors.
Steve LaBonne
Eight Songs for a Mad King
Harrison Wesley
@Jackie: Let them eat each other. Pimp the Libertarian candidate,and a Dem will win by default.
No One of Consequence
@mrmoshpotato: That thing which crawled atop his head and perished is starting to rot. Melanoma thought it was him soiling himself, but that was just in additional olfactory facet to his particular funk.
He wears the hat because getting what remains of his follicles to behave is beyond the ken of his handlers and beyond his patience to wrestle with anymore.
This is, of course, just a theory. I think Oranjeezus just doesn’t give a fuck anymore and would prefer to fuck off into the sunset, golfing the entire way, while the rest of the ungrateful world sings his praises and mails him his peace prizes.
This will not end well. For almost anyone.
-NOoC
Jackie
@pat:
Several jackals replied to your question on the previous thread – including explanations of why. There was quite a discussion about it.
eclare
Deleted
Jay
@trollhattan:
Interesting thread,
https://nitter.poast.org/tomaspueyo/status/1935805723834818916#m
Nobody invades Iran from Pakistan.
They Call Me Noni
@cope: The more things change the more they stay the same.
trollhattan
@Harrison Wesley:
If you’re Raylan Givins you can wear your hat inside. Everybody else take that thang off.
different-church-lady
It’s not even our goddamned war. It’s Bibi’s war.
eclare
@trollhattan:
Humphrey Bogart in any movie.
different-church-lady
@No One of Consequence: No, he wears the hat for merchandizing. Always Be Selling.
Harrison Wesley
@different-church-lady: But he’s willing to share!
pat
@Jackie:
Yes, there were several replies but it was still not clear to me that all of this was known before the bombing…. Wonder if it’s in the WaPo. I’ll check. I haven’t had time to read through all their reporting yet.
Wouldn’t you think that someone would have said, oh yeah, we destroyed the facility but there wasn’t any uranium left in it that would contaminate the surroundings for a few million years..
Just read this in the wapo. Interesting..
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: But Killer Kamala?
JoyceH
In other news, I sprained my ankle ten days ago. It improved quickly for a few days and now everything has slowed down. I’m not walking with a cane anymore, but it’s still somewhat swollen and painful. I’ve read that athletes use red light therapy to heal from injuries sooner, so I have my red light therapy mask draped over my ankle.
mrmoshpotato
@eclare: Those would probably fall off when looking up to catch a fly ball. :)
Also, obligatory.
mrmoshpotato
@Professor Bigfoot:
If only you were a secret agent – and a platypus.
eclare
@mrmoshpotato:
Hahaha…part of the soundtrack to my mid-eighties high school days! Nothing like a steady beat and a screaming guitar.
MinuteMan
@sab:
A key point: even if fate put him out of our misery today the horrible Republican cabal would still be alive and well and committing atrocities. Our system will remain unstable and one glitch away from tyranny until most people in this country see the behavior of the GOP over the past few decades as repugnant and then vote accordingly.
Jay
@pat:
The current head of the IRGC Intelligence gave an interview to Fars yesterday, saying they knew the attacks would be coming, back in March, and started preparing and moving personnel, equipment and enriched uranium into more secure facilities.
They Call Me Noni
@Jackie: Any chink in the armor is a good thing. I read somewhere that the Proud Boys ain’t so happy with him either. Seems they thought he really meant “America First”. When will all these stupid people realize he NEVER means what he says?
Jay
BTW, TACO Don is currently “truthing” on his shitty website about “regime change” in Iran.
They Call Me Noni
@WaterGirl: And Kentucky has a Democratic Governor. I live right across the river and become more envious every big new cycle.
Why can’t we have nice things??
They Call Me Noni
@Harrison Wesley: My Mother would give you “the look” if you wore a hat in her house or put one on the bed.
They Call Me Noni
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: And apparently dumb as rocks.
pat
@Jay:
Thanks for the info. I’m reading through the wapo now but so far nothing except the block quote I left up at 47. And a couple of times that there is no local irradiation being detected.
I find it very important. Obviously it would take a lot to damage the barrels that the uranium is stored in. And don’t forget, if they managed to save all the stuff they have already enriched to a certain extent, all they have to do is build more centrifuges. Ha. “all” they have to do….
They Call Me Noni
@Jackie: I gotta hand it to my neighbors to the south. They showed out pretty good on No Kings Day. Seems a lot of the natives are restless and not at all happy.
They Call Me Noni
@eclare: I adore Humphrey Bogart. I have an original, signed charcoal sketch of him and Ingrid Berman (the airport scene, but it’s set on the second street bridge in Louisville) from Casablanca that I found years ago and had framed. My half bath is decorated around it. My fave movie of his is The African Queen.
Jay
@pat:
The barrels are pretty fragile. They are designed to keep radiation in and water out, not survive a missile strike. The enriched uranium is in the form of a powder. The individual barrels, loaded, can be moved by one man with a hand truck.
We know they moved some equipment as well, probably test and handling equipment and their newest centrifuges and computers.
Rubio et al are on the “News Shows”, yelling “no intelligence”.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@They Call Me Noni: We are what we are. For good and bad, both brilliant and beguiling…
Jackie
@They Call Me Noni:
It’s a shame no one told them over and over and over again – what would happen if they elected him into office… <face in palm>
Jay
https://bsky.app/profile/whstancil.bsky.social/post/3ls7hxqmips2p
pat
@Jay:
Once again, thanks for the info. Can you go write this up for the wapo?
I haven’t found any of this in the paper..
Jay
@pat:
https://bsky.app/profile/golikehellmachine.com/post/3ls7ti62qd22p
Do you know of any US FTMSM outlets that are anti-war, unwilling to sanewash or lie by omission?
On the great news side, this means a 4th generation in a row of “Mercan’s” are going to have the opportunity to die in the Middle East.
schrodingers_cat
That red hat looks dumb.
Professor Bigfoot
Like I said- ridiculous. ;-)
Matt McIrvin
@MinuteMan:
They don’t just have to find the Republicans repugnant, they have to find some specific alternative less repugnant and unite behind them. And that’s what feels most difficult. It’s so easy for objectors to take refuge in “they’re ALL terrible, I abstain” or in hopeless minor causes.
TheronWare
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It was and is. In the military it was always headgear off inside.
Captain C
@mrmoshpotato:
It may be in part to demonstrate his non-existent humble roots to the cult and his solidarity with them in giving a fuck you to the fashion sense of those elitists.
different-church-lady
@mrmoshpotato: There’s a reason they’re called ball caps.
KenK
@eclare: yep. I wear a Panama hat when I golf. I’d prefer to keep my ears intact.
MisterForkbeard
@Matt McIrvin: I have seen a number of idiots claim today that you can’t shame them about not voting for Kamala because she would have… done the same thing.
Sigh.
Another Scott
@TONYG: Years ago I knew a guy who was a hippie (later lived on an actual commune) and a gymnast when he was of draft age. He got rated 4F by his draft board because he had flat feet. Never gave him any problems, but he gladly took their ranking!
The military seemed to be weird about feet back then. :-/
And, of course, there were too many rich white guys who were more than happy to use their privilege to get out of national service. Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
scav
@MisterForkbeard: Reality itself must warp around their self-esteem: it’s the American way. American Christianity has a similar effect on the Will of God himself, it too warps around their pre-existing desires and prejudices.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard:
We shouldn’t shame anybody. Detest them, sure. But if they were capable of feeling shame, they would have voted to stop fascism.
JoyceH
@Jay: Wow. Barrels of uranium powder, that takes me back. Remember our last “well thought out” intervention in that area? The staff that were guarding the uranium for the UN per agreement were scared off by the advancing American troops and there was no directive to secure the uranium. So the locals got into the site and found a whole bunch of handy barrels. They dumped the contents in the river, washed the barrels and started using them for water. I think it took months for someone to wonder, hey, what happened with the uranium? And go to check it out. And remember, the Trump administration is even MORE incompetent than the Bush administration was. PRAY Trump doesn’t get the okay (or go without it) to put “boots on the ground”.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
According the Guardian, yes to both.
Another Scott
@pat: It’s still very, very early.
TWZ.com will probably continue to have more stories about the attack and the aftermath (they’ve been doing updates over the weekend, but I don’t see anything about the uranium yet).
Best wishes,
Scott.
Another Scott
@pat: @Another Scott:
Cheryl Rofer worked on the team trying to keep control of the former USSR’s nuclear materials back in a previous life. She’s another person to watch in coming days.
Best wishes,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
The WaPo has as one of its top stories one titled “How Trump got to ‘yes’ on bombing Iran.” Yeah sure, like there was the least bit of logic or process or any of that.
That paper just keeps on getting worse.
YY_Sima Qian
Not surprising (click through the link for the image caps of the AIS tracker):
lowtechcyclist
@Jay:
So they’re talking about themselves then?
Jay
@Another Scott:
Very sloppy writing and click bait.
Iran does not have a Nuclear Weapons Program.
Therefore there isn’t a loose nuke situation, just a failure of US and Israeli Intelligence.
And 60% is not “close” to weapons grade, it’s high speed reactor grade fuel, if it were to be compressed into rods.
Pretty sure Iran knows exactly where their evacuated enriched uranium, tools, test equipment and centrifuges are.
A problem is that Iran currently believes that the IAEA Chair and team members “told” Israel and the US all the targeting information, so once the bombs and missiles stop flying, they might not provide the IAEA access or information on locations or inspection access until the IAEA “Mission” is purged of American and Israeli spies.
Kinda like Iraq all over again.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: There are/were thousands, if not tens of thousands, of centrifuges at Fordow, they could not have been removed w/ only a couple of dozen trucks. Centrifuges are very sensitive machines, so even if the GBU-57s did not destroy the enrichment halls out right, or collapse the halls on top of the machinery, the shocks alone probably have out them out of commission for a while.
However, Iran almost certainly removed the HEU, enough for 10 bombs, which are now invisible to the IAEA. Should there be regime collapse, they become loose nuke material for real.
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot: bucket hat with the school logo, of course (like my grandfather used to wear)
Matt
@Harrison Wesley:
His motivation for this position is that he’s a Nazi who thinks Jews control the world. Nothing about that should make you want to like him.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
The IRGC Spokesman that they started stripping all the facilities starting in March, 4 months ago and moving the contents.
The fact that there has been no detection of any radiological leaks, suggests that the buildings were stripped out and deep cleaned.
But a loose nuke scenario is the favorite click bait of movies and the FTNYT, even though it has never happened over the past 80 years.
cmorenc
@JoyceH: I wear my Carter’s Vintage Guitars baseball cap because I like the looks of it, and because they are the best and most fun guitar store I have ever been in, and I really don’t care whether you ballcap-haters like it or not. But I wear it properly, bill to the front. I will agree that ballcaps do look stupid worn backwards.
Jay
@cmorenc:
The only time baseball caps don’t look stupid when worn backwards, is if you are welding or wearing a hard hat.
Matt McIrvin
@MisterForkbeard: Yes, that’s the automatic next move in this rhetorical game. I remember it from 20 years ago. Gore would have invaded Iraq too and would have been even worse a torturer than Bush, etc., etc. Since it’s all a counterfactual there’s no effective way to argue with it.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s why they beat you. You’re treating them as people of good faith who you need to convince with facts, so of course you can’t win an argument. When you realize they’re propagandists, you argue it effectively:
When dealing with people like that, the key is to not get defensive but stay on offense. Remember, it’s their argument, it’s their burden.
Matt McIrvin
@JoyceH: My primary reason for wearing a hat is being bald and pale-skinned, so I need that brim that goes all the way around. I have a couple of Tilleys. Wearing a Tilley hat is a strange thing though because it’s like joining a strange fraternity, people will call you out in public like you’re their secret society brother. “Is that a TILLEY HAT???”
Paul in KY
@Spanky: Sounds like some dude pron movie.
Paul in KY
@JoyceH: I wear them at outdoor fest, cause the bill is a great sun shade for the face.
Paul in KY
@Harrison Wesley: He’s (IMO) just a bit better than Comer.
Paul in KY
@No One of Consequence: Supposedly, he thinks of the hair as his ‘brand’.
Paul in KY
@JoyceH: Just takes some time. Take care of it and it should be fine.
Paul in KY
@They Call Me Noni: African Queen sure is a great film! They did great by casting Hepburn in it.
Paul in KY
@MisterForkbeard: Even if she had, there were 1,945,822 more reasons to vote for her over TACO.
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: Really bad blisters and such can take a troop out of action for months.