U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday. The language Mr. Trump is using to speak about this war is detestable, writes Marsha Lederman.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
It is ridiculous to have to even state this, but war is hell, not an “excursion” to be downplayed, dismissed, glorified or gamified. Justified? Perhaps – although difficult to do, this peacenik would argue. But to regard war as if it were something that wasn’t killing actual people and destroying life as the survivors know it is a base grotesquerie, staggering in a time when we can see for ourselves, in almost real time, what war can do.
When Donald Trump blinked and extended the deadline to “hit and obliterate” Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened, he spoke about a five-day extension like a... I don’t know what – a frat bro, a schoolchild, an imbecile? Certainly not a grown human being. Or a president.
“We’re doing a five-day period,” he told reporters. “We’ll see how that goes. And if it goes well, we’re going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.”
This from the man who has indeed bombed the little hearts of children at school in the early moments of this war. But rather than take any responsibility or express regret about that, he’s focused only on glory. “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” Mr. Trump said two weeks ago.
War, to again state the obvious, is not a game to be won or lost.
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And yet people are betting on it. Not in the sense of, “Let’s hope the oppressive regime is toppled and Iranians are freed.” But actually gambling.
You can place a wager on Polymarket about this war, as Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel Fabian found out personally, when what seemed to be a benign reader request for him to update information about a missile strike outside Jerusalem (it was interceptor debris that fell, they argued, not a full missile) turned into death threats if he did not do so. Why? There was big money riding on it. Millions of dollars were placed on predicting when strikes would begin.
This feels like Fall of Rome times. People are placing bets on human lives. The President of the United States is bragging about ships being sunk to the bottom of the sea; there are sailors aboard those ships. The White House social media account is posting videos to “promote” the war – using film clips and childish sequences such as animated bowling pins representing Iranian officials being struck down by a stars-and-stripes ball, complete with video-game-style voice-overs and soundtracks.
Meanwhile, in Tehran, between air strikes, real human beings are checking on loved ones and pets left behind on behalf of friends and family who have sought shelter outside the city. Food is limited and very expensive; the air is thick with smoke and it is difficult to breathe. People are sitting in the dark.
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The language the President of the United States is using to speak about this war is detestable. (I initially wrote “unfathomable,” but we all know who we’re dealing with; in the headlines these days, it’s not just the oil that’s crude.)
Mr. Trump says the two sides are talking; Iran says they’re not. Never in the history of Iran’s oppressive theocratic regime would it have been reasonable to question which side – the U.S. or Iran – would be less trustworthy. (Although I would still take America’s word over Iran’s.)
One can argue that if this war is successful – i.e., it leads to regime change in Iran and ends the nuclear threat – it will have been worth it. Unfortunately, that’s a big if. Israel and the U.S. have killed much of Iran’s leadership, but also more than 1,500 Iranians in the process, according to Iran’s Health Ministry, and taken out critical infrastructure. If this was a regime that truly cared about its people, that might surrender to protect them, that would be one thing. But it is not.
Now, under bombardment, even Iranians opposed to the regime are said to be turning on the war. Who wouldn’t when life as they know it is imploding around them?
Further, Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz is a game-changer, if you’ll pardon the expression, and every one of us is an involuntary player, paying the price with real, not board-game, money.
In war, victory comes with a steep price. Win or lose is not black and white. To speak of this devastation with such casual bravado is more than insensitive. It demonstrates a grave vacuum of understanding, intellect and empathy. Mr. Trump wants to bomb his little heart out? What heart?