Over 8 million people turned out this weekend all across this country in defiance of one man, Donald Trump, the wannabe king, at No Kings rallies throughout America. People of every age bracket, ethnic origin, economic tier, political leaning and social class are banding together to say not on my watch, not here, not now and not ever will we crown you as a king, a dictator or an emperor.
We are fed up with your broken promises, your pathological lying and your billionaire boys club. He bamboozled and duped a large swath of the voting electorate by claiming he would bring the cost of living down, he would not start any new forever wars and he would be a peacetime president.
Well, just in case you didn’t get the memo, the price of gas is a dollar more than it was a month ago, 13 service members’ lives have been lost and over 200 have been seriously injured, and the civilian casualty number is above 2,000. The Iranians are controlling the Strait of Hormuz, and their proxies, the Houthis, are controlling the other shipping channel known as the Red Sea.
We now have boots on the ground in the Gulf region ready to undertake a military offensive that could backfire either against us or our Gulf partners. Either way, it will be a very risky proposition. The geopolitical consequences of such a move have not been properly vetted.
We cannot militarily win this war by bombing 20,000, or however many, targets in Iran, with a population of 90 million people. The only ones with guns are the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and they are now more fanatical and hardcore than their predecessors.
Which brings me to my next point, and that being an off-ramp. As I see the saber-rattling on both sides coming to a crescendo, I think both parties would like to save face and not engage in prolonged war with no clear winner.
With that being said, it will be up to the Pakistanis, the Egyptians and the Turks to find little, if any, common ground among the parties to first get a ceasefire in place until a more permanent solution can be achieved. Both sides will claim victory, but that’s OK as long as the war comes to an abrupt end, along with the mass killing of women and children, and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to all oil tanker traffic without being bombed.
Larry Watson
Columbus
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
