CSotD: When You Play the Fool, Who Wins?
Skip to comments
The good news is that he hasn’t tried to declare the war all-but-over the way W did, or even the way Bramhall suggests he might. But it’s scant comfort, because at least when W did it, he was trying to fool us, and he did fool quite a few of us, though it didn’t last long, because it quickly developed that we weren’t being greeted with flowers and by the way we weren’t sending our kids out there in vehicles that could stand up to an IED.
In fact, Tom Toles created quite a stir by quoting Donald Rumsfeld, who said our troops were battle-hardened in those first bloody, poorly equipped days, and he even got a nastygram from the Joint Chiefs for expressing his doubts.
Toles’ doubts, that is. I don’t know what Rumsfeld may have heard from them after he said “You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time” as troops over there were sticking scrap metal on their vehicles in hopes of gaining a little more protection.
That was when some of us first heard the term “traumatic brain injury” and a lot of us didn’t. Yet.
And how many times in 2026 have you seen a variant of Christo’s 2006 commentary on the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, whose death was supposed to cripple the opposition?
Some of the most classic cartoons aren’t a bit funny. Or at least they go through periods where they aren’t. Twain laughed it off, but, yes, history does repeat itself.
And here we are.
Blitt depicts Fearless Leader as a combination of Patton and MacArthur, and his faithful sidekick has already declared that we have no intention of following international rules of engagement, so we’re unleashing both generals’ tendency to flout authority, which is quite a start to things, given that Patton was repeatedly punished and MacArthur ultimately relieved of command.
I proposed back in 2016 that Presidential Debates should begin with the candidates each picking five nations out of a bowl and then finding them on a large outline map of the world, but that would be a “gotcha question” and it’s unfair to expect candidates to know things.
Still, as this Facebook posting tells us, Dear Leader says you can literally walk from Iran to Qatar, which involves strolling 119 miles across the Persian Gulf. I don’t care if he can find Lichtenstein or Brunei on the map, but he should take a look at the parts of the world he plans to bomb.
Whether Trump is too lazy to bother finding things out or genuinely too stupid to retain facts, reports indicate that everyone in his second administration makes a special effort to avoid giving him discouraging advice.
Presumably they saw what happened to people in his first administration who told him he couldn’t shoot demonstrators in the legs or drop atomic bombs on hurricanes or who explained why there is a memorial at a place called Pearl Harbor.
The result is exchanges like this mid-air press gaggle:
Reporter: Did the US bomb an elementary school and kill 175 people?
Trump: Based on what I’ve seen, it was done by Iran.
Reporter: Is that true Mr. Hegseth?
Hegseth: We’re investigating.
Trump: They are very inaccurate with their munitions. It was done by Iran.
And don’t expect the press to provide much of a corrective influence. The White House Concubines Association — having already surrendered their traditional right to select the press pool — has agreed not to have a comedian at their annual prom this year so that the thin-skinned Mr. Trump can attend.
Instead, they’re having a mentalist provide the entertainment, and we’ll see if he can read a roomful of blank books.
Hilarious stuff, assuming you’ve never bothered to question whether you should let someone you’re interviewing buy you a beer.
Molina sums up my main objection to all the “America First” sloganeering, apart from the fact that they borrowed it from Nazis and bigots. They also borrowed it from isolationists, and while they seem to fulfill most of their American Bund roots, they certainly aren’t, as he notes, isolationists.
It seems as if Trump never met a foreign country he didn’t want. In the past, we’ve schmoozed and bribed other countries, and it could be, if not admirable, at least honorable. Feeding their poor and extending medication into their hinterlands worked, as did occasionally building a dam.
Cutting off food and medicine and threatening to blow them up just doesn’t provide the same fuzzy vibe.
As McKee points out, the administration is intent on projecting a good image, and Hegseth doesn’t like the fake news pointing out that a couple of Americans have died in this latest international adventure when they should be focusing on all the good things that are going on. Not that the Dow is anywhere near 50,000 anymore, but there are still other things.
And besides, the President went out to Dover to watch the coffins come off the plane and, since it was a solemn occasion, he even wore a brand new ball cap.
Juxtaposition of the Day
We mentioned this the other day but noted that it was, as yet, a one-source story and was so outrageous that we need confirmation before considering it true. Now we’ve got it.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has received at least 200 complaints from service members whose superior officers have “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ” and that “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”
Yikes indeed.
I wish Horsey hadn’t added the barmaid’s thoughts at the end. If the polls are any indicator, we’ve narrowed things down to a majority who don’t need a clue and the hardcore who wouldn’t recognize one.
Keep the faith.
Comments 15