I mean myself here. I have said little–not nothing, but not very much–about Trump’s war against Iran. I realize it is a complex issue and that if it comes to simply two sides(“we should have” and “we shouldn’t have”)a reasonable person might find some arguments to agree with on each side. But it is NOT that simple and I won’t say it is. It is complicated and I have thought about it a lot. I have no solution for the terrible foreign policy mess for our country but I do have a few brief thoughts that I wish to share–

–The Iranian regime, in power for more than 40 years now, is one of the worst governments in the world and has been responsible for untold amounts of tragedy, repression, and dictatorship. It is a threat to its neighbors and to many far away(USA for example)–therefore it is not an unreasonable desire to see it gone

–It is not gone–it is physically wounded and its military power is way less than it was before the fighting started–but it is stubborn and still not without power–it is not clear if its leadership is united or who the most important person there now is–it would be helpful to have this information–meanwhile, the US and Israel are clearly winning the strictly military part of the struggle–Iran will lose outright or make a deal BUT

–we don’t know how long that will take or if we, as a country or an alliance will have the patience and determination to stick it out–in the meantime, Iran is holding its own in the PR war, despite making what I see as some mistakes–they would have been better off NOT attacking their neighbors who might have favored staying neutral but won’t if they keep getting bombed by them-but the Iranians have shown no inclination to surrender, although there is the occasional rumor someone there wants to talk to someone from our country(If that’s true I think we should listen to what they have to say–likely wouldn’t work but , he, who can tell that?)

-meanwhile, Iran has one great victory–they have substantially closed, certainly restricted traffic in the Strait of Hormuz–they still control it to the extent that they sometimes let a ship of someone they like through(this happened recently with, I think, two Indian ships)–meanwhile, it is mostly unused and the world’s oil prices are rising–since these prices are determined at the international level(don’t ask me how now)the fact that the US has almost enough oil without imports doesn’t help much–

–our Administration is deeply divided or deeply confused or maybe both about what is going on–come to think of it, the President himself may be like that–we get one story after another about our purpose in this conflict, about what we would consider victory, about how it will become clear when victory occurs–the conflicting reports and contradictions are red meat for anti-Trump types, including me, but we should note that they may make us look ridiculous and maybe not someone to fear and/or respect if they go on and on

–along the same lines many members of the Administration, particularly cabinet members and others involved in national security are liars and/or sycophants–note Tulsi Gabbard and Sen Mullin Wednesday and their refusal to provide information which was asked for by members of Congress–The latter was worked over badly by a furious Sen Rand Paul whom I sometimes agree with–this is one of the times

–the rest of the world is watching all this with, I think, a combination of fear(that the US is withdrawing from being a leader for peace and stability),amusement(at seeing the Americans so flustered)and contempt for apparent incompetence

–there is no clear end in sight despite the heroic behavior of our military–this thing may drag on and on and if so, economies will be badly affected and the whole international scene made less stable

–the role of Israel in this is troubling–I hate anti-semitism and am alarmed by those who even unintentionally give it support by suggesting Israel dragged a reluctant US into this-these people are wrong but that does not mean Israel is right in everything

–there appears to be a troubling change in the values of the Israeli government. they have always been first, last and whatever for doing what was necessary to protect their country and I support them in that–but lately there has appeared a subtle but I think clear contempt for life in other countries–wars almost always lead to something like this but it is deeply shocking to see it in our good ally–furthermore, it may be that our desired ends and Israel’s are not, (in this case, at least)close to each other-

–The President should learn to spell “strait”– (and brush up on his prose all around–he also might use an editor)–this sort of thing makes us look ignorant to the world and careless of our choice of leaders–maybe we should a send him a thesaurus or a dictionary, or direction of how find them on line-when I’m not sure how to spell something in a blog I look it up–not that difficult, Mr President–you should maybe try it