If you want to get the unfiltered skinny on how the never-ending war with Iran is going, it’s written in the dust. Responsible Statecraft’s Trita Parsi reported this week that U.S. service members marooned in the Persian Gulf have been expressing themselves in messages fingered onto a dusty aircraft flap. The anonymous graffiti, which calls to mind the helmet scrawls of disgruntled soldiers in Vietnam, include “Operation Epstein Fury,” “Peace deal #64 incoming … ALL THIS FOR THE HOLY LAND,” and “Bibi’s cucks.” Sounds like things aren’t going so well! “I have no frame of reference, I can’t compare it to the sentiments of U.S. soldiers in previous conflicts,” Parsi wrote. “But I suspect these are new sentiments, or at least a new willingness to express them this openly and directly.”
Whether these sentiments are new is indeed unclear, but it’s not without a frame of reference. Trump has always been fairly explicit in his disrespect for the grunts who do most of the work—and all of the dying—in this racket that we call “war.”
I sometimes wonder if he resents decent people for their decency. Like, the concept of giving up something for someone else obviously makes no sense to him, but maybe at some level he understands that some people do it easily, and maybe if he could understand it people might start to genuinely like and care about him.
More than likely he probably just thinks decent people are suckers to be used by him, the main character.
I’m sure he thinks the idea is dumb, but what he really hates is someone getting attention for being a decent person. That’s his real kryptonite. Having to give deference to people with qualities he could never bring himself to have while they are lauded for it.
Well he did refer to vets as “suckers and losers” in his first term, so I’m pretty sure it is the latter.