It's pretty clear that Trump is in effect a 10 year old, stuck in the mid-1950s, who is playing war with his friends and with toy soldiers. He seems incapable of comprehending that these are real people, and that American soldiers/sailors/air crews/marines are risking their lives, and dying, and that real civilians are suffering and many are being killed. In his mind, it's all a game-- an abstraction. He also doesn't comprehend that wars rarely end cleanly, and that there will be a significant mess to clean up when things are over. There will also be permanent damages, and likely, the seeds of the next war will have been planted
Trump learned nothing from our "exercises" in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. No surprise, learning is not something that he values - it goes against his unrealistic vision of reality.
He has no concept of history at all, especially our own, and will never be able to learn anything from our mistakes because he believes that HE has never made a mistake in his life.
I suspect that Trump is something of an object lesson in why it's not necessarily a good idea for the frustrated parents of an out of control boy to enroll him in a military academy (as Trump was) in the hope that he will learn discipline and self-control. Young Donnie appears instead to have developed a taste for glory, gold leaf and the type of dominance one can gain by being tall, sly and backed up by a pile of money.
"It's pretty clear that Trump is in effect a 10 year old..."
It's pretty clear that Trump has impulse control issues when it comes to communicating. It's also clear that most Americans don't like him personally (including me). However, it's also pretty clear that more Americans preferred him to Kamala Harris in 2024 for a host of reasons, despite all of the negative press, two impeachments and multiple felony convictions. Even today, as low as Trump's popularity is, it's still higher than for the Democratic Party.
More to the point, Trump is willing to act upon what previous administrations acknowledged was a looming issue - a nuclear-armed Iran. But it's more than that. Iran took a page out of North Korea's playbook. By that I mean that instead of putting all of their resources into just the nuclear option, the mullahs also spent a considerable amount of money on conventional forces (missiles and drones). The thinking was that, should anyone attack them, Iran could respond with so many missiles and drones that they would overwhelm any defense network and still have plenty left over. And they were getting very close to that point. Still, we may have only destroyed less than half of their current stockpile, so we have been targeting launchers, launch sites, and the means of production.
It's a heavy lift to be sure, but it's something that has to be done. We still need to remove any and all uranium (enriched or not), centrifuges, and any other items Iran could use to build any future bombs.
"He also doesn't comprehend that wars rarely end cleanly, and that there will be a significant mess to clean up when things are over."
Does that mean we shouldn't attempt it? Or do you think kicking the can down the road once again will make the problem go away?
"There will also be permanent damages, and likely, the seeds of the next war will have been planted."
The seeds for World War I were planted at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. The seeds for World War II were planted with the Treaty of Versailles. The Cold War was the result of ideological struggles in the aftermath of World War II. So, yes, seeds for future conflict will likely be planted here. It doesn't mean we don't confront the threat we face now.
Amendment 25 please. And pray that whoever is holding the nuclear "football" codes and those under that person know better than to press the trigger. That doesn't take care of Hegseth, who who also needs to be impeached ASAP., as he is on what he feels is a holy mission to bring about the Rapture, and second coming of Christ.
Congress would have to appoint a new panel that would invoke the 25th Amendment. But there's as strong a prospect of that as there is of Vance and Trump's Cabinet doing so... zero.
MAGA is devoting enormous, panicky energy to rigging the midterm elections because retaining GOP control of Congress is Trump's only institutional protection against our nation's popular will. We can't let them win.
Congress would also have to be present and working. They are on vacation. Even warmonger Lindsey Graham was spotted at Disney World this week. You'd think he'd want to be at Trump's right hand during all this excitement; must have been forced out by Hegseth and Trump, who is only in love with military men these days. Current ones.
And don't you just love the way Mike Johnson and Hegseth claim to be Christians. Whoops I just thought of a good one... let's ask Pope Leo XIV to ex-communicate them. Pope Leo is standing up as a world leader, for which I am grateful.
The only one he could excommunicate is Vance and he has already rebuked him at least once - in public. Vance stupidly tried to then correct the Pope in the interpretation of Catholic teaching! The issue was ordo amoris (rightly ordered love) which Vance thought enabled mass deportations, and the Pope said was actually about the parable of The Good Samaritan.
The Trump administration's ignorance is only exceeded by their arrogance.
Do they? What might be the right time then, a nuclear weapon dropped on Iran?
I distrust those stories of "Republican colleagues tell me privately...." or maybe I just feel disgust. I'd want to reply, "Say it when and where it could mean something or keep your trap shut." No, they're all too sceered of the big, bad bully.
Do you know who wasn't scared? My state senator, who wrote the MI Republican legislature report about our 2020 election, after he investigated all the allegations for 8 months. He said our election was free, fair, and accurate and even added that those saying otherwise were doing so for "personal gain".
Naturally, this came to Trump's attention and he screeched, "You're primaried". And he was, which didn't matter in the primary or the election; Mr. Ed McBroom was re-elected. More than once.
This Democrat probably hasn't agreed with him on any other single thing, but I respect him for having integrity on this important issue, and standing up to pressure. It's a pity that there are so few other Republicans who do so.
Where do you get that? I'm saying I'd like to see Republicans in Congress stand up to Trump in ways that are significant - as my lowly nobody of a state senator did - and not just play lip service to the concept when chatting with colleagues.
Constituents should pressure them all they can, but if they are saying one thing behind closed doors and not actually DOING anything, then they're useless hypocrites already, and it's not likely to succeed.
I wish people (and I was until recently one of them) would stop imagining that the 25th amendment will ever be enacted. I've learned that this very difficult for a number of reasons. For one, the corrupt grifters and ideologues in the cabinet (all of them?) will never act to remove him, and for another the 25th was written to protect national functioning from a president who was, basically, comatose or similarly impaired--not a crazy one. And I give you Woodrow Wilson as a prime example of how it doesn't even work then if the cabinet is determined to preserve the status quo. IMPEACHMENT is the only remedy available. Write your senators and congressmen.
Do not expect miracles re: invoking the 25th Amendment. The cabinet secretaries are charged with this action, and as they are loyalist toadies, they will not act againt the leader. We're faced with another unlikely scenario, that the MAGApublicans will impeach.
"Do not expect miracles re: invoking the 25th Amendment. The cabinet secretaries are charged with this action, and as they are loyalist toadies, they will not act againt the leader."
At least Biden wasn't bombing ships and their crews in the Carribean, nor was he sending our military against Iran without any good reason for doing so and fomenting a regional war. Besides, we're done with Biden, and Trump is causing a disaster - domestically and internationally.
It still doesn't change the fact that the argument you made in regard to the 25th Amendment and Trump was equally applicable to Biden.
"Besides, we're done with Biden..."
I'm just here to remind you of what Dems and the media (including Jen Rubin) deliberately chose to ignore, and you will never change that. Had Biden been removed from office, an incumbent President Harris would have run against Trump.
"“The Americans and the Israelis who started the conflict with delusions of forcing capitulation thus find themselves in a quagmire without an exit strategy” — bears a greater resemblance to reality than the chest-thumping and deranged threats we hear from Trump. At the very least, we can infer this represents the current Iranian leadership’s assessment of the war." This statement tells it clearly that America must find an exit, the sooner the better, without further military actions. Amendment 25 and a new government could negotiate the opening of the strait. It is humiliating, indeed. But it seems least costly in terms of human lives.
Oh dear. I just love your comment about the Rapture and second coming of Christ. I have suggested that he is the anti-christ fortold in the Bible. He came and charmed people into being followers as he led them to the destruction of the world. I actually mentioned this in a comment to an article in the Times, but of course, it didn't make it. It does sound too radical and me.... a religious nut... but there is no way to explain what we are going through and what is in store for us unless we figure out a way to get out of this travesty of government. Tump's people are like circus performers.. one dumber than the other... but always dangerous with the power of their offices... and the pre-planning of Miller and Vaught.
Unpopular question: What were those jet fighters doing there? Had they just bombed another school or hospital? Maybe some residences? Maybe they were about to?
And yes, the action movie coverage of the rescue has been nauseating...even NPR was practically breathless recounting the story.
Ok, glad they were rescued. Now back to the thousands of Iranian men, women and children already killed, and more killed every day by the US/Israel alliance...the tens of thousands of destroyed homes...the massive environmental damage....the tens of thousands wounded...
Yes, I am glad the airman was rescued, and at the same time I am sick knowing that this war is unnecessary and that our nation has committed acts of destruction and murder for no reason.
I'm beginning to hope the Iranians win. And I'm not sure that even the Artemis mission is fact unless the Iranians confirm it. That's how lacking in credibility this president, all his minions, and all the MSM who accept their reports of events, are.
It is truly incredible, the depth to which this admin has taken us...the total lack of any credibility or respect ... the insane shit this guy says that would have ruined the political career of anyone a few years past...
..but yes, there is plenty of blame all around, certainly legacy media deserves some (as well as plenty of Substack outlets)...now the White House Correspondence Dinner is happening again, with Trump as a guest...and the brave reporters will show their support for free speech with....pins...a bit like the little signs Dems bring to SOTU.
Did everyone forget how Schumer was actually egging on Trump to attack Iran from the right not that long ago, calling him a chicken for not doing it? Or all the Dems that condemned the ICC and not Netanyahu when he was indicted for war crimes?
Does anyone care that Jennifer Rubin herself was one of the biggest neocon hawks anywhere in the media all through the Obama years, with not a single word of explanation from her ever? I think I may be the only Contrarian reader that ever mentions this, usually to plenty of scornful replies.
Still, I hope Trump chickens out tonight, or something...I hope the world survives this madness.
20+ years ago, I read a book I've been unable to forget, "War Is The Force That Gives Us Meaning" by Chris Hedges, a former NYT war correspondent. From a summary:
Chris Hedges argues that the media acts as a component of the "machinery" of war by promoting nationalist myths and presenting sanitized, antiseptic coverage of conflict. Hedges contends that journalists often succumb to the allure of conflict and become complicit in state propaganda, replacing the "sensory reality" of war's brutality with a manufactured, heroic narrative.
That was one of the themes from the book that really stuck with me, and I have been noticing it ever since.
Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with the aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” while British statesman Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This is a vivid example of that truism. If you read the writings from those who lived through WWI in Europe, in particular, you hear this recognition, disenchantment, bitterness and deep sense of betrayal. The government and the media conspired--very deliberately, as far as I can see in those earlier wars--to mislead young men into thinking they were going to have a grand adventure. The war killed a huge swath of a generation of males, left a population of damaged men, and an older generation mourning and deprived of their loved ones. But, as is amply clear, we as a culture, especially in the manosphere, have turned our backs on learning from history and are freshly susceptible to these lies. My own generation (early boomers) suffered from this same amnesia, until the endless, fruitless war in Viet Nam woke us up.
Beg to differ. The early boomers were the first to discover the perfidy of the actions in Vietnam, and to call out the lies. The media covered it like a football game until the stand-ins (and later, protests) begun by people who went through it told their stories, and more people began to understand what was really happening. Boomers were the generation whose lives were impacted the most. People in general were oblivious until we coalesced around the vets coming home and resisted. You must have lived in a different universe than the people I grew up with.
We aren't differing. As an early boomer, we didn't understand war until we saw the Viet Nam war. We totally agree that we saw the war and started protests and that worked out in time. I was born in 1950, and thought WWII had been glamorous until I saw what you are talking about. Like, when I was 14 or 15. Maybe you grew up in a household where you were taught war was bad as a small child, but I watched old WWII themed movies in B & W on tv and I thought I had missed out on something cool. Until I realized I was wrong.
I stood in a Times Square in a Quaker vigil against that war.
Maybe we need to do that again... Although signs against the war were evident at the wonderful No Kings parades with nine million Americans coming out into the streets.
Thank you for your thoughtful response, Barbara. I was born exactly during the first year after Pearl Harbor, which was when the first bump of boomers were born. I actually have memories of, not the war itself, of course, but how the people around me were affected. My dad worked in the shipyards. I didn't see the night sky until I was 4. That was normal, as things are when you are a child. I knew things were going on, but the adults didn't talk openly about it, because we were a port city. But my uncles were overseas in the services and I felt the tension. When the war ended, people went door to door sharing the news, and poured out into the streets, laughing and dancing. All I understood is that things had changed. That year we moved to a small town in a valley in the mountains.
In the late 40s/50's I heard stories about what my uncle's had been through in the 50s, but not from them. They never talked, and often seemed remote. Their stories were quietly shared so that we could understand. My friends and I saw, and interacted with the disabled veterans from the "domiciliary" on the military camp a few miles coming into the small town we'd moved to. By the time the movies came out, we saw them for what they were. We watched them to try to understand the adults in our lives. Not all of the movies were glorifying war: most of them were about the impacts on people's lives. And back then, the newsreels were coming out about what was found in Europe post-war. I had learned by then about the several Japanese internment camps tucked discreetly in the landscape around us out of view. I suspect that the fact that I am several years older than you is why your view of the post-war years is so different from mine. You were born AFTER the war, part of the post-war baby boom, an extension of the early war boom I was part of.
My parents carefully guided us as we learned about the war. But many parents shielded their children from it, and some of my school mates, having grown up in the mountains, were more distanced from the experience. And as we got further from the war, people who could sought to create something they though was more "normal" following the depression and WW2, but was the beginning of a massive shift in our society, a shift we are still coming to grips with.
There are so many examples that prove this. The 'embedded' journalists of the Iraq War(s), the video game style video coverage we first saw in Iraq War 1....
We still keep the myth that somehow the US is some benevolent force in the world...not a dominating aggressive power that has bombed, invaded and subverted too many countries to list here...and certainly, mainstream journalists have done their part with nonstop hagiography and dramatic, jingoistic coverage that so often fails to ask why were are doing these things at all..
Of course, one of those journalists during the Obama era was the founder of this outlet...I really think Contrarian readers would be downright shocked to read some of her pieces from then.
Chris Hedges admitted he was one himself. Those reflections were what prompted him to write the book. He went on to Harvard Divinity School, becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister.
When I thought of the book, I looked him up, and sure enough, he has a Substack. It was his early chat with a former British diplomat where they were casually talking about all the censorship in Israel, how the Western media was not giving people all the facts, and how Iran was just getting started in their strategy of how they would most effectively use their weapons that sent me reading foreign news.
This so fits my feelings about the press. Years ago the Daily News and probably the Mirror, had photos of shootings. Then we got concerned that it would offend people, so they disappeared. The same is true of films when someone gets shot. It happens so neat and fast ....without the screaming in pain and cries for help... and for their mothers.
AND America hasn't had a war since the Civil War and too soon we forget. We see the photos of the devistation of buildings, but remember in Uvalve, the school shooting. We saw photos of the fully armored police waiting in the hallway to act, while inside the children were bleeding to death. Do you recall that one girl was identified only because of her green sneakers. I am so sorry to say this... but really we need to see those awful photos of massacred children to bring it home. For people to realize we have a gun culture here in America. I forget how many guns the average person owns.. it's something like one in every five owns one. As JL West says it, we have lost the "sensory reality" of war's brutality with a manufactured, heroic narrative.
Just think of Napolean's army, dressed in their fine clothes, going to war. It was never displaced by pictures of the reality of war.
It isn't that West and I want to show the brutality, except that a lot of people prefer not too see the reality, and we need them to, so that they take action.
All I can think of is the cost. Those high tech planes are million dollar investments. One F-16 costs $100 million! They are filled with expense computers etc. I too abhor the loss of lives but I'm trying to get people to realize we are being hurt just as much as the Iranians, in the long run.
Someone in a headline said China is getting an eyeful of what our military
has available... And that we are going to have to creating new weapons.
Oh... of course.... that's how DJT plans to get the economy going!
What is really going to make me ill, is the day the astraunots land and
Trump is there to take credit for it.. I just hope they act like the women soccer team, after the Olympics say, "Thank you but we have prior commitments.
I appreciated the following observation from HCH (below) in her April 6 letter. Her last point is crystal clear to an ever-increasing number of us regular citizen observers while the NYT continues to sane-wash, trapped in a journalistic world that apparently dictates that the noteworthy story isn’t newsworthy.
From HCR
“It’s really difficult to cover him in a way that conveys how unhinged he is,” journalist Aaron Rupar of Public Notice told George Grylls of The Times about President Donald J. Trump. Rupar explained that political journalists are trained to think, “‘OK, what did he say that was newsworthy?’ So you…convey that to your audience. But in reality, when you actually watch his rallies, you see that they’re full of hatred, he’s lying constantly, and a lot of it is incoherent.”
Rupar spends as much as eighty hours a week watching Trump and members of his administration, clipping videos of their noteworthy statements into a few minutes at a time. His work is indispensable for translating Trump’s long, meandering speeches to people who need shorter versions of them. In this quotation, he nails the real problem of this moment in which the president of the United States is threatening “obliteration” if another nation doesn’t do as he demands: the noteworthy story is not what the president says; the story is the president himself and his obvious mental deterioration.
My commentary—The Times is incapable of breaking with its legacy media practices even while the Trump regime manipulates those practices to make headlines that create the appearance that Trump is a functioning president. I knew from listening to less than 15 seconds of Trump in yesterday’s news conference that the purpose of the event was to trot him out to show he’s still alive and can engage with the world. What an awfully low bar for presidential performance. As I learned from personal experience, someone who has dementia like Alzheimer’s can interact with people, if they had that skill before, and appear okay to others not paying much attention. But that same person can’t be trusted to manage their bills or find their wallet, much less run a country. We’re being duped by our government and the legacy media is in on it, even if unintentionally. To the Times, I say, “Democracy is not neutral and the gap between your reporting and citizens’ perceptions is becoming enormous.” Something is breaking and the Times should care about what that is. It needs to adapt, as the rest of us are.
Thank you, Ms. Rubin, for that full and scathing list of lies that resulted in two of our aircraft being shot down, two other aircraft damaged, and a (thankfully successful) horribly dangerous rescue mission THAT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN NECESSARY if we had grown-ups in charge at the pentagon.
Hegseth better be grilled to a crisp on the 29th when he testifies to congress. The fact that he put these service members at risk by lying about "uncontested air space and complete control" should result in his resignation or firing.
Trump and his minions are like the Bourbons: "They have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing." Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shown us that asymmetrical warfare using drones, which are very cheap and can be manufactured anywhere, can allow a smaller, nominally weaker country to hang on indefinitely and inflict considerable damage on the aggressors. This war is good only for Putin, who has had sanctions on Russian oil lifted (temporarily?) and who can sell it at prices undreamed of even two months ago.
“dim-witted defense secretary…”. LOVE it! So true! Great description, Jennifer! That might explain why he was “the smartest kid in 3rd grade for 5 years in a row”!
If I had to create a bigger, more ignorant, more arrogant asshole on my own from stick figures, I couldn't come anywhere near the one-dimensional shallowness of Pete Kegsbreath. "We have complete control of the skies -- they can't do anything about it." This snide, revolting performative 12-year-old clearly hasn't bothered to read a single history book or understood air campaigns. By March 1945, the US had complete control of the skies over Japan, but "victory" wasn't a part of the reality then at all. Okinawa awaited. China awaited. Borneo had yet to be won. The Battle of Tokyo Bay had not yet been fought.
Are we being groomed for six more months of fire-bombing before a nuclear "device" gets used? Or is that too long for these jerks to wait?
i care and worry about what netanyahu has inflicted on Israel and the consequences for the day after when it comes. but at least he is not mad! the "most powerful country in the world" is run by a lunatic... what next ????
I don't see much difference between what Netanyahu is doing in Lebanon and what Putin is doing in Ukraine, as this is an invasion and war for territory with plenty of civilian targets. Israel posts to X and drops leaflets telling people they have a certain amount of time and where they should go, e.g., "north of the Litani River". Oh, wait, that was weeks ago. Now they have to go farther north of the Zarani river, as Israeli forces keep pushing north, and blow up homes and bridges over the Litani river along the way.
One family of six didn't have a car and had to wait for a friend to pick them up. He was a little late; they were all killed. Imagine being that pilot or drone operator. Did he convince himself that the children were Hezbollah? This kind of shit is happening every day! (I read Al Jazeerah)
Over a million people are now displaced. They flee to southern Beirut and then get blown up there, too. No one seems to care. France sent "humanitarian aid" as if this was a natural - not entirely MAN made disaster.
Putin at least has an enemy that's fit to respond. Netanyahoo's "enemies" are a people he has already flattened to death. And he fancies hehimselfs a hero.
Good point. Ukraine also had a world outcry, and help was sent their way. I can't figure out what the deal is with Lebanon. Yes, Hezbollah has rained rockets down on Israel and apparently Israel feels the Lebanon gov't hasn't done enough to curtail them, but does that give them the right to level the country and then declare that the territory you now occupy is "greater Israel"?
The UN has spoken out, of course, not least of which because Lebanon now has 1.1 million refugees. People were sleeping in their cars after grabbing whatever they could before those deadlines. They're living in tents, inside and outside of buildings. Meanwhile, the IDF was ordered to destroy their vacated houses. Whole villages!
Pure savage barbarism. This by a nation that is supposedly living by the tenets of Judaism. Every Jew anywhere in the world should be opposing Israel's ever-expanding holocaust.
During the so-called 'ceasefire' between Lebanon and Israel starting in Nov 2024, and ending with the Iran War, Israel killed hundreds of people in Lebanon, displaced tens of thousands, and destroyed homes and infrastructure across southern Lebanon. Israel started constructing a wall crossing into Lebanese territory that makes 4,000 square meters inaccessible to the population.
As of Feb 2026, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese government reported more than 15,400 ceasefire violations by Israeli forces. Israel issued at least 13 evacuation orders in this time period. For Israel, a 'ceasefire' is an entirely one-way agreement, in Gaza as in Lebanon.
I am not 100% sure, but in that time of the 'ceasfire', I don't know of a single attack that resulted in deaths of IDF soldiers of Israeli citizens by Hezbollah. But even if there were...does Lebanon not have the right to 'defend itself' as Israel and its apologists constantly claims it has?
Hezbollah's attacks only began again after the Iran War started, after 15 months of open, brazen 'ceasefire' violations by Israel.
And now, as you say, Israel is very much working to fully and permanently annex southern Lebanon....this has been a goal of Israel for decades, along with annexing parts of Syria as it has also done, and of course, entirely eliminating Palestinian society from the Occupied Territories.
You are not 100% sure, yet you post with certainty. Whose missiles murdered the Druze children playing on the playground?
You lie when you say that annexing parts of Lebanon and Syria has been the goal of Israel for decades.
Israel's big mistake was to take over the WB after the 6 Day War. They should have left it to Jordan. Jordan took care of the Palestinian problem. Remember Black September? How about you educate everyone about Black September. Why did Jordan do what it did?
Netanyahu wants a huge buffer zone, right? So no rockets can reach Israel. A DMZ only on the OTHER side of the border of a sovereign country. A buffer zone that just keeps getting bigger and bigger as more territory is claimed and more people killed, maimed, displaced, and their homes destroyed.
How is that right? But that's not what it's about, is it? In this case, might is all that counts. He can shoot a "didn't have a ride" family from the sky, because he has the power to do so and a twisted sense of morality.
I'm not going to defend Bibi. I will say that it is up to the Lebanese government and army to maintain control of the border and make sure that terrorists don't have free rein to do as they want in Israel. Why is the Lebanese government doing anything?
I'm not up on Lebanese politics at all but in general, it seems like they have a bully in their midst who is prepared to break all rules and do as they please. How does a government deal with a violent criminal element like this, who is causing havoc with your neighbor?
I don't know, but it still seems simply outrageous to me that the only answer is for the bully's victims to invade that sovereign country for territory, territory that the bully is using. And become the very thing they're supposedly defending against - bullying to the max! Killing, wounding, destroying homes, etc.
I just can't accept this as justified. There has to be a different way.
Trump is likely to try to do this in Mexico at some point, I suspect. Say the cartels are out of control, the Mexican authorities haven't done enough, so he will invade and occupy a part of Mexico to whatever extent he wants on the border. He's talked about it and could do it as the US military can defeat the cartels, although a lot of innocent people will be hurt, killed, and displaced, as well. And the cartels will just resurge at some point anyway. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Thank you, Jen, for calling out the Trump administration's "misrepresentations" about US air superiority over Iran. That the U.S. committed 155 planes to one airman's rescue is, ultimately, a reminder about Trump's war's stupidity and profligacy.
On another note, I was delighted to see Dana Milbank's NYT column about Trump's debasement of J.D. Vance this morning. It was good to see another one of your former Washington Post colleagues abandoning the Bezos Post for NOTUS.
It's too bad that Mr. Milbank couldn't have been lured to The Contrarian staff. When allowed by the editors at the Washington Post, he presented excellent reporting. He also did his research.
Ignorance is not always bliss. Trump has access to people with deep knowledge of the complexities inherent in Iranian history and culture, as well as generals with the ability to think strategically without succumbing to cheerleading about things that go boom. But does he take advantage of this? No. He appears to be incapable of listening to anyone who is not acting as an echo chamber and amplifier of his ignorant views.
I think you have the right tone. Thank you. I wonder when Iran will purchase some fighters from China or North Korea and shoot down some of those lumbering b-52’s.
Vance is a lot of things, most of them awful, but he's not a malignant narcissist with probable dementia. Vance is said to have been opposed to this war initially, which, if true, suggests he would be looking for a way out, and Trump being out of the picture could enable that.
Moot point anyway, as it won't happen. Not with this spineless group of Republicans.
The 25th is meant as a temporary stop-gap measure. Vance would only fill in until Trump is able to resume. Vance would not become president. The only viable legal option is impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate. Or Trump somehow dies despite his god-like image of himself. I can hardly wait, and I don't particularly care how it happens. Unfortunately, nothing would change even then, given the people who will simply step into place. Unless we make a LOT of noise, everywhere and all at once.
It's pretty clear that Trump is in effect a 10 year old, stuck in the mid-1950s, who is playing war with his friends and with toy soldiers. He seems incapable of comprehending that these are real people, and that American soldiers/sailors/air crews/marines are risking their lives, and dying, and that real civilians are suffering and many are being killed. In his mind, it's all a game-- an abstraction. He also doesn't comprehend that wars rarely end cleanly, and that there will be a significant mess to clean up when things are over. There will also be permanent damages, and likely, the seeds of the next war will have been planted
Trump learned nothing from our "exercises" in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. No surprise, learning is not something that he values - it goes against his unrealistic vision of reality.
They are giant fools and liars who got into a mess from which they can't extricate themselves.
He has no concept of history at all, especially our own, and will never be able to learn anything from our mistakes because he believes that HE has never made a mistake in his life.
The ones who haven't learned anything are those who think Iran's theocratic leadership (whatever's left of it) will give up on its nuclear ambitions.
How could you possibly know this, fool?
"How could you possibly know this, fool?"
Okay, I'll play your silly game...how could I possibly know this?
Uh huh. Are you drunk or are you stupid, fool? Or both?
If all you want to do is hurl personal insults, you really don't need a response from me, do you?
He is not incapable of comprehending. He does not care. Any human being other than himself, is expendable.
I suspect that Trump is something of an object lesson in why it's not necessarily a good idea for the frustrated parents of an out of control boy to enroll him in a military academy (as Trump was) in the hope that he will learn discipline and self-control. Young Donnie appears instead to have developed a taste for glory, gold leaf and the type of dominance one can gain by being tall, sly and backed up by a pile of money.
Like in Spaceballs. "no sir, I didn't see you playing with your dolls sir"
He has no interest in comprehension; only self-gratification.
Well said
Lies and more lies.
"It's pretty clear that Trump is in effect a 10 year old..."
It's pretty clear that Trump has impulse control issues when it comes to communicating. It's also clear that most Americans don't like him personally (including me). However, it's also pretty clear that more Americans preferred him to Kamala Harris in 2024 for a host of reasons, despite all of the negative press, two impeachments and multiple felony convictions. Even today, as low as Trump's popularity is, it's still higher than for the Democratic Party.
More to the point, Trump is willing to act upon what previous administrations acknowledged was a looming issue - a nuclear-armed Iran. But it's more than that. Iran took a page out of North Korea's playbook. By that I mean that instead of putting all of their resources into just the nuclear option, the mullahs also spent a considerable amount of money on conventional forces (missiles and drones). The thinking was that, should anyone attack them, Iran could respond with so many missiles and drones that they would overwhelm any defense network and still have plenty left over. And they were getting very close to that point. Still, we may have only destroyed less than half of their current stockpile, so we have been targeting launchers, launch sites, and the means of production.
It's a heavy lift to be sure, but it's something that has to be done. We still need to remove any and all uranium (enriched or not), centrifuges, and any other items Iran could use to build any future bombs.
"He also doesn't comprehend that wars rarely end cleanly, and that there will be a significant mess to clean up when things are over."
Does that mean we shouldn't attempt it? Or do you think kicking the can down the road once again will make the problem go away?
"There will also be permanent damages, and likely, the seeds of the next war will have been planted."
The seeds for World War I were planted at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. The seeds for World War II were planted with the Treaty of Versailles. The Cold War was the result of ideological struggles in the aftermath of World War II. So, yes, seeds for future conflict will likely be planted here. It doesn't mean we don't confront the threat we face now.
My thoughts exactly
Amendment 25 please. And pray that whoever is holding the nuclear "football" codes and those under that person know better than to press the trigger. That doesn't take care of Hegseth, who who also needs to be impeached ASAP., as he is on what he feels is a holy mission to bring about the Rapture, and second coming of Christ.
Congress would have to appoint a new panel that would invoke the 25th Amendment. But there's as strong a prospect of that as there is of Vance and Trump's Cabinet doing so... zero.
MAGA is devoting enormous, panicky energy to rigging the midterm elections because retaining GOP control of Congress is Trump's only institutional protection against our nation's popular will. We can't let them win.
Congress would also have to be present and working. They are on vacation. Even warmonger Lindsey Graham was spotted at Disney World this week. You'd think he'd want to be at Trump's right hand during all this excitement; must have been forced out by Hegseth and Trump, who is only in love with military men these days. Current ones.
And don't you just love the way Mike Johnson and Hegseth claim to be Christians. Whoops I just thought of a good one... let's ask Pope Leo XIV to ex-communicate them. Pope Leo is standing up as a world leader, for which I am grateful.
The only one he could excommunicate is Vance and he has already rebuked him at least once - in public. Vance stupidly tried to then correct the Pope in the interpretation of Catholic teaching! The issue was ordo amoris (rightly ordered love) which Vance thought enabled mass deportations, and the Pope said was actually about the parable of The Good Samaritan.
The Trump administration's ignorance is only exceeded by their arrogance.
A lot of Congressional Dems say Republicans privately are waiting for the right moment to bolt.
We need to pressure/convince Republicans.
IMHO the fatal flaw is Epstein. Nobody wants to be associated with, identified with child predators.
Do they? What might be the right time then, a nuclear weapon dropped on Iran?
I distrust those stories of "Republican colleagues tell me privately...." or maybe I just feel disgust. I'd want to reply, "Say it when and where it could mean something or keep your trap shut." No, they're all too sceered of the big, bad bully.
Do you know who wasn't scared? My state senator, who wrote the MI Republican legislature report about our 2020 election, after he investigated all the allegations for 8 months. He said our election was free, fair, and accurate and even added that those saying otherwise were doing so for "personal gain".
Naturally, this came to Trump's attention and he screeched, "You're primaried". And he was, which didn't matter in the primary or the election; Mr. Ed McBroom was re-elected. More than once.
This Democrat probably hasn't agreed with him on any other single thing, but I respect him for having integrity on this important issue, and standing up to pressure. It's a pity that there are so few other Republicans who do so.
So... you're telling people NOT to pressure Congressional Republicans?
Where do you get that? I'm saying I'd like to see Republicans in Congress stand up to Trump in ways that are significant - as my lowly nobody of a state senator did - and not just play lip service to the concept when chatting with colleagues.
Constituents should pressure them all they can, but if they are saying one thing behind closed doors and not actually DOING anything, then they're useless hypocrites already, and it's not likely to succeed.
Criminy, Daniel, give it up, will you?
And meanwhile JD Vance is in Europe stomping on behalf of the strong man “Orban” whom Trump admires because Trump wants to be like him.
I wish people (and I was until recently one of them) would stop imagining that the 25th amendment will ever be enacted. I've learned that this very difficult for a number of reasons. For one, the corrupt grifters and ideologues in the cabinet (all of them?) will never act to remove him, and for another the 25th was written to protect national functioning from a president who was, basically, comatose or similarly impaired--not a crazy one. And I give you Woodrow Wilson as a prime example of how it doesn't even work then if the cabinet is determined to preserve the status quo. IMPEACHMENT is the only remedy available. Write your senators and congressmen.
It may be time to send postcards, emails and phone calls with the short and sweet message... DUMP TRUMP!
Do not expect miracles re: invoking the 25th Amendment. The cabinet secretaries are charged with this action, and as they are loyalist toadies, they will not act againt the leader. We're faced with another unlikely scenario, that the MAGApublicans will impeach.
"Do not expect miracles re: invoking the 25th Amendment. The cabinet secretaries are charged with this action, and as they are loyalist toadies, they will not act againt the leader."
We saw the same scenario with Biden, didn't we?
At least Biden wasn't bombing ships and their crews in the Carribean, nor was he sending our military against Iran without any good reason for doing so and fomenting a regional war. Besides, we're done with Biden, and Trump is causing a disaster - domestically and internationally.
"At least Biden wasn't...blah blah blah..."
It still doesn't change the fact that the argument you made in regard to the 25th Amendment and Trump was equally applicable to Biden.
"Besides, we're done with Biden..."
I'm just here to remind you of what Dems and the media (including Jen Rubin) deliberately chose to ignore, and you will never change that. Had Biden been removed from office, an incumbent President Harris would have run against Trump.
"“The Americans and the Israelis who started the conflict with delusions of forcing capitulation thus find themselves in a quagmire without an exit strategy” — bears a greater resemblance to reality than the chest-thumping and deranged threats we hear from Trump. At the very least, we can infer this represents the current Iranian leadership’s assessment of the war." This statement tells it clearly that America must find an exit, the sooner the better, without further military actions. Amendment 25 and a new government could negotiate the opening of the strait. It is humiliating, indeed. But it seems least costly in terms of human lives.
Oh dear. I just love your comment about the Rapture and second coming of Christ. I have suggested that he is the anti-christ fortold in the Bible. He came and charmed people into being followers as he led them to the destruction of the world. I actually mentioned this in a comment to an article in the Times, but of course, it didn't make it. It does sound too radical and me.... a religious nut... but there is no way to explain what we are going through and what is in store for us unless we figure out a way to get out of this travesty of government. Tump's people are like circus performers.. one dumber than the other... but always dangerous with the power of their offices... and the pre-planning of Miller and Vaught.
The New York Times coverage has been quite disappointing, writing about the rescue mission as if it was an episode of "Mission Impossible".
The legacy media 's treatment of Trump as if he bears ANY resemblance to a sane, functioning human being is a grave disservice to the world.
Unpopular question: What were those jet fighters doing there? Had they just bombed another school or hospital? Maybe some residences? Maybe they were about to?
And yes, the action movie coverage of the rescue has been nauseating...even NPR was practically breathless recounting the story.
Ok, glad they were rescued. Now back to the thousands of Iranian men, women and children already killed, and more killed every day by the US/Israel alliance...the tens of thousands of destroyed homes...the massive environmental damage....the tens of thousands wounded...
Yes, I am glad the airman was rescued, and at the same time I am sick knowing that this war is unnecessary and that our nation has committed acts of destruction and murder for no reason.
I would like to see every single US military person over there 'rescued' by bringing them all home now.
(and of course, this would in turn 'rescue' countless Iranian lives....)
I'm beginning to hope the Iranians win. And I'm not sure that even the Artemis mission is fact unless the Iranians confirm it. That's how lacking in credibility this president, all his minions, and all the MSM who accept their reports of events, are.
(I feel your total disgust and distrust...I could go off much more here about so much more! appalling isn't a strong enough word)
It is truly incredible, the depth to which this admin has taken us...the total lack of any credibility or respect ... the insane shit this guy says that would have ruined the political career of anyone a few years past...
..but yes, there is plenty of blame all around, certainly legacy media deserves some (as well as plenty of Substack outlets)...now the White House Correspondence Dinner is happening again, with Trump as a guest...and the brave reporters will show their support for free speech with....pins...a bit like the little signs Dems bring to SOTU.
Did everyone forget how Schumer was actually egging on Trump to attack Iran from the right not that long ago, calling him a chicken for not doing it? Or all the Dems that condemned the ICC and not Netanyahu when he was indicted for war crimes?
Does anyone care that Jennifer Rubin herself was one of the biggest neocon hawks anywhere in the media all through the Obama years, with not a single word of explanation from her ever? I think I may be the only Contrarian reader that ever mentions this, usually to plenty of scornful replies.
Still, I hope Trump chickens out tonight, or something...I hope the world survives this madness.
I'm not "beginning to hope; I see it as the only justifiable end.
20+ years ago, I read a book I've been unable to forget, "War Is The Force That Gives Us Meaning" by Chris Hedges, a former NYT war correspondent. From a summary:
Chris Hedges argues that the media acts as a component of the "machinery" of war by promoting nationalist myths and presenting sanitized, antiseptic coverage of conflict. Hedges contends that journalists often succumb to the allure of conflict and become complicit in state propaganda, replacing the "sensory reality" of war's brutality with a manufactured, heroic narrative.
That was one of the themes from the book that really stuck with me, and I have been noticing it ever since.
Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with the aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” while British statesman Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This is a vivid example of that truism. If you read the writings from those who lived through WWI in Europe, in particular, you hear this recognition, disenchantment, bitterness and deep sense of betrayal. The government and the media conspired--very deliberately, as far as I can see in those earlier wars--to mislead young men into thinking they were going to have a grand adventure. The war killed a huge swath of a generation of males, left a population of damaged men, and an older generation mourning and deprived of their loved ones. But, as is amply clear, we as a culture, especially in the manosphere, have turned our backs on learning from history and are freshly susceptible to these lies. My own generation (early boomers) suffered from this same amnesia, until the endless, fruitless war in Viet Nam woke us up.
Beg to differ. The early boomers were the first to discover the perfidy of the actions in Vietnam, and to call out the lies. The media covered it like a football game until the stand-ins (and later, protests) begun by people who went through it told their stories, and more people began to understand what was really happening. Boomers were the generation whose lives were impacted the most. People in general were oblivious until we coalesced around the vets coming home and resisted. You must have lived in a different universe than the people I grew up with.
We aren't differing. As an early boomer, we didn't understand war until we saw the Viet Nam war. We totally agree that we saw the war and started protests and that worked out in time. I was born in 1950, and thought WWII had been glamorous until I saw what you are talking about. Like, when I was 14 or 15. Maybe you grew up in a household where you were taught war was bad as a small child, but I watched old WWII themed movies in B & W on tv and I thought I had missed out on something cool. Until I realized I was wrong.
I stood in a Times Square in a Quaker vigil against that war.
Maybe we need to do that again... Although signs against the war were evident at the wonderful No Kings parades with nine million Americans coming out into the streets.
Thank you for your thoughtful response, Barbara. I was born exactly during the first year after Pearl Harbor, which was when the first bump of boomers were born. I actually have memories of, not the war itself, of course, but how the people around me were affected. My dad worked in the shipyards. I didn't see the night sky until I was 4. That was normal, as things are when you are a child. I knew things were going on, but the adults didn't talk openly about it, because we were a port city. But my uncles were overseas in the services and I felt the tension. When the war ended, people went door to door sharing the news, and poured out into the streets, laughing and dancing. All I understood is that things had changed. That year we moved to a small town in a valley in the mountains.
In the late 40s/50's I heard stories about what my uncle's had been through in the 50s, but not from them. They never talked, and often seemed remote. Their stories were quietly shared so that we could understand. My friends and I saw, and interacted with the disabled veterans from the "domiciliary" on the military camp a few miles coming into the small town we'd moved to. By the time the movies came out, we saw them for what they were. We watched them to try to understand the adults in our lives. Not all of the movies were glorifying war: most of them were about the impacts on people's lives. And back then, the newsreels were coming out about what was found in Europe post-war. I had learned by then about the several Japanese internment camps tucked discreetly in the landscape around us out of view. I suspect that the fact that I am several years older than you is why your view of the post-war years is so different from mine. You were born AFTER the war, part of the post-war baby boom, an extension of the early war boom I was part of.
My parents carefully guided us as we learned about the war. But many parents shielded their children from it, and some of my school mates, having grown up in the mountains, were more distanced from the experience. And as we got further from the war, people who could sought to create something they though was more "normal" following the depression and WW2, but was the beginning of a massive shift in our society, a shift we are still coming to grips with.
There are so many examples that prove this. The 'embedded' journalists of the Iraq War(s), the video game style video coverage we first saw in Iraq War 1....
We still keep the myth that somehow the US is some benevolent force in the world...not a dominating aggressive power that has bombed, invaded and subverted too many countries to list here...and certainly, mainstream journalists have done their part with nonstop hagiography and dramatic, jingoistic coverage that so often fails to ask why were are doing these things at all..
Of course, one of those journalists during the Obama era was the founder of this outlet...I really think Contrarian readers would be downright shocked to read some of her pieces from then.
Chris Hedges admitted he was one himself. Those reflections were what prompted him to write the book. He went on to Harvard Divinity School, becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister.
When I thought of the book, I looked him up, and sure enough, he has a Substack. It was his early chat with a former British diplomat where they were casually talking about all the censorship in Israel, how the Western media was not giving people all the facts, and how Iran was just getting started in their strategy of how they would most effectively use their weapons that sent me reading foreign news.
This so fits my feelings about the press. Years ago the Daily News and probably the Mirror, had photos of shootings. Then we got concerned that it would offend people, so they disappeared. The same is true of films when someone gets shot. It happens so neat and fast ....without the screaming in pain and cries for help... and for their mothers.
AND America hasn't had a war since the Civil War and too soon we forget. We see the photos of the devistation of buildings, but remember in Uvalve, the school shooting. We saw photos of the fully armored police waiting in the hallway to act, while inside the children were bleeding to death. Do you recall that one girl was identified only because of her green sneakers. I am so sorry to say this... but really we need to see those awful photos of massacred children to bring it home. For people to realize we have a gun culture here in America. I forget how many guns the average person owns.. it's something like one in every five owns one. As JL West says it, we have lost the "sensory reality" of war's brutality with a manufactured, heroic narrative.
Just think of Napolean's army, dressed in their fine clothes, going to war. It was never displaced by pictures of the reality of war.
It isn't that West and I want to show the brutality, except that a lot of people prefer not too see the reality, and we need them to, so that they take action.
All I can think of is the cost. Those high tech planes are million dollar investments. One F-16 costs $100 million! They are filled with expense computers etc. I too abhor the loss of lives but I'm trying to get people to realize we are being hurt just as much as the Iranians, in the long run.
Someone in a headline said China is getting an eyeful of what our military
has available... And that we are going to have to creating new weapons.
Oh... of course.... that's how DJT plans to get the economy going!
What is really going to make me ill, is the day the astraunots land and
Trump is there to take credit for it.. I just hope they act like the women soccer team, after the Olympics say, "Thank you but we have prior commitments.
I appreciated the following observation from HCH (below) in her April 6 letter. Her last point is crystal clear to an ever-increasing number of us regular citizen observers while the NYT continues to sane-wash, trapped in a journalistic world that apparently dictates that the noteworthy story isn’t newsworthy.
From HCR
“It’s really difficult to cover him in a way that conveys how unhinged he is,” journalist Aaron Rupar of Public Notice told George Grylls of The Times about President Donald J. Trump. Rupar explained that political journalists are trained to think, “‘OK, what did he say that was newsworthy?’ So you…convey that to your audience. But in reality, when you actually watch his rallies, you see that they’re full of hatred, he’s lying constantly, and a lot of it is incoherent.”
Rupar spends as much as eighty hours a week watching Trump and members of his administration, clipping videos of their noteworthy statements into a few minutes at a time. His work is indispensable for translating Trump’s long, meandering speeches to people who need shorter versions of them. In this quotation, he nails the real problem of this moment in which the president of the United States is threatening “obliteration” if another nation doesn’t do as he demands: the noteworthy story is not what the president says; the story is the president himself and his obvious mental deterioration.
My commentary—The Times is incapable of breaking with its legacy media practices even while the Trump regime manipulates those practices to make headlines that create the appearance that Trump is a functioning president. I knew from listening to less than 15 seconds of Trump in yesterday’s news conference that the purpose of the event was to trot him out to show he’s still alive and can engage with the world. What an awfully low bar for presidential performance. As I learned from personal experience, someone who has dementia like Alzheimer’s can interact with people, if they had that skill before, and appear okay to others not paying much attention. But that same person can’t be trusted to manage their bills or find their wallet, much less run a country. We’re being duped by our government and the legacy media is in on it, even if unintentionally. To the Times, I say, “Democracy is not neutral and the gap between your reporting and citizens’ perceptions is becoming enormous.” Something is breaking and the Times should care about what that is. It needs to adapt, as the rest of us are.
Thank you, Ms. Rubin, for that full and scathing list of lies that resulted in two of our aircraft being shot down, two other aircraft damaged, and a (thankfully successful) horribly dangerous rescue mission THAT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN NECESSARY if we had grown-ups in charge at the pentagon.
Hegseth better be grilled to a crisp on the 29th when he testifies to congress. The fact that he put these service members at risk by lying about "uncontested air space and complete control" should result in his resignation or firing.
yeah, should
Trump and his minions are like the Bourbons: "They have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing." Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shown us that asymmetrical warfare using drones, which are very cheap and can be manufactured anywhere, can allow a smaller, nominally weaker country to hang on indefinitely and inflict considerable damage on the aggressors. This war is good only for Putin, who has had sanctions on Russian oil lifted (temporarily?) and who can sell it at prices undreamed of even two months ago.
trump is a traitor
jared is a traitor
witkoff is a traitor etc.
Anne Piece, I wonder how much is trump's cut on Russia lifesaver lifted sanctions and all the money they are making? 10% maybe?
more than that...he wants to sit at the right hand of putin...
That arrangement would sit Putin to the left of trump 🤔 and it would create a conflict that might end up in a war....😫
When it comes to this two guys, nobody wins....
“dim-witted defense secretary…”. LOVE it! So true! Great description, Jennifer! That might explain why he was “the smartest kid in 3rd grade for 5 years in a row”!
If I had to create a bigger, more ignorant, more arrogant asshole on my own from stick figures, I couldn't come anywhere near the one-dimensional shallowness of Pete Kegsbreath. "We have complete control of the skies -- they can't do anything about it." This snide, revolting performative 12-year-old clearly hasn't bothered to read a single history book or understood air campaigns. By March 1945, the US had complete control of the skies over Japan, but "victory" wasn't a part of the reality then at all. Okinawa awaited. China awaited. Borneo had yet to be won. The Battle of Tokyo Bay had not yet been fought.
Are we being groomed for six more months of fire-bombing before a nuclear "device" gets used? Or is that too long for these jerks to wait?
As long as this spoiled teenagers don't have to risk their own lives, 6 months is too long to wait ICTT. They want immediate satisfaction.
i care and worry about what netanyahu has inflicted on Israel and the consequences for the day after when it comes. but at least he is not mad! the "most powerful country in the world" is run by a lunatic... what next ????
Yes, Netanyahoo is not insane, but he is pure cruelty.
I don't see much difference between what Netanyahu is doing in Lebanon and what Putin is doing in Ukraine, as this is an invasion and war for territory with plenty of civilian targets. Israel posts to X and drops leaflets telling people they have a certain amount of time and where they should go, e.g., "north of the Litani River". Oh, wait, that was weeks ago. Now they have to go farther north of the Zarani river, as Israeli forces keep pushing north, and blow up homes and bridges over the Litani river along the way.
One family of six didn't have a car and had to wait for a friend to pick them up. He was a little late; they were all killed. Imagine being that pilot or drone operator. Did he convince himself that the children were Hezbollah? This kind of shit is happening every day! (I read Al Jazeerah)
Over a million people are now displaced. They flee to southern Beirut and then get blown up there, too. No one seems to care. France sent "humanitarian aid" as if this was a natural - not entirely MAN made disaster.
Putin at least has an enemy that's fit to respond. Netanyahoo's "enemies" are a people he has already flattened to death. And he fancies hehimselfs a hero.
Good point. Ukraine also had a world outcry, and help was sent their way. I can't figure out what the deal is with Lebanon. Yes, Hezbollah has rained rockets down on Israel and apparently Israel feels the Lebanon gov't hasn't done enough to curtail them, but does that give them the right to level the country and then declare that the territory you now occupy is "greater Israel"?
The UN has spoken out, of course, not least of which because Lebanon now has 1.1 million refugees. People were sleeping in their cars after grabbing whatever they could before those deadlines. They're living in tents, inside and outside of buildings. Meanwhile, the IDF was ordered to destroy their vacated houses. Whole villages!
Pure savage barbarism. This by a nation that is supposedly living by the tenets of Judaism. Every Jew anywhere in the world should be opposing Israel's ever-expanding holocaust.
Expanding holocaust?? Define holocaust please.
During the so-called 'ceasefire' between Lebanon and Israel starting in Nov 2024, and ending with the Iran War, Israel killed hundreds of people in Lebanon, displaced tens of thousands, and destroyed homes and infrastructure across southern Lebanon. Israel started constructing a wall crossing into Lebanese territory that makes 4,000 square meters inaccessible to the population.
As of Feb 2026, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese government reported more than 15,400 ceasefire violations by Israeli forces. Israel issued at least 13 evacuation orders in this time period. For Israel, a 'ceasefire' is an entirely one-way agreement, in Gaza as in Lebanon.
I am not 100% sure, but in that time of the 'ceasfire', I don't know of a single attack that resulted in deaths of IDF soldiers of Israeli citizens by Hezbollah. But even if there were...does Lebanon not have the right to 'defend itself' as Israel and its apologists constantly claims it has?
Hezbollah's attacks only began again after the Iran War started, after 15 months of open, brazen 'ceasefire' violations by Israel.
And now, as you say, Israel is very much working to fully and permanently annex southern Lebanon....this has been a goal of Israel for decades, along with annexing parts of Syria as it has also done, and of course, entirely eliminating Palestinian society from the Occupied Territories.
You are not 100% sure, yet you post with certainty. Whose missiles murdered the Druze children playing on the playground?
You lie when you say that annexing parts of Lebanon and Syria has been the goal of Israel for decades.
Israel's big mistake was to take over the WB after the 6 Day War. They should have left it to Jordan. Jordan took care of the Palestinian problem. Remember Black September? How about you educate everyone about Black September. Why did Jordan do what it did?
How are they leveling the entire country? Don't you know that Hezbollah terrorists were operating out of those villages?
Have you seen even a single mention of Lebanon in The Contrarian since this latest war started? I haven't.
JL, was Ukraine shooting missiles into Russia resulting in Russia's invasion?
Netanyahu wants a huge buffer zone, right? So no rockets can reach Israel. A DMZ only on the OTHER side of the border of a sovereign country. A buffer zone that just keeps getting bigger and bigger as more territory is claimed and more people killed, maimed, displaced, and their homes destroyed.
How is that right? But that's not what it's about, is it? In this case, might is all that counts. He can shoot a "didn't have a ride" family from the sky, because he has the power to do so and a twisted sense of morality.
I'm not going to defend Bibi. I will say that it is up to the Lebanese government and army to maintain control of the border and make sure that terrorists don't have free rein to do as they want in Israel. Why is the Lebanese government doing anything?
I'm not up on Lebanese politics at all but in general, it seems like they have a bully in their midst who is prepared to break all rules and do as they please. How does a government deal with a violent criminal element like this, who is causing havoc with your neighbor?
I don't know, but it still seems simply outrageous to me that the only answer is for the bully's victims to invade that sovereign country for territory, territory that the bully is using. And become the very thing they're supposedly defending against - bullying to the max! Killing, wounding, destroying homes, etc.
I just can't accept this as justified. There has to be a different way.
Trump is likely to try to do this in Mexico at some point, I suspect. Say the cartels are out of control, the Mexican authorities haven't done enough, so he will invade and occupy a part of Mexico to whatever extent he wants on the border. He's talked about it and could do it as the US military can defeat the cartels, although a lot of innocent people will be hurt, killed, and displaced, as well. And the cartels will just resurge at some point anyway. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
I don't know what the answer is.
He's DT with brains.
More cunning these days than intelligence. He's like Dorian Gray who was transformed by his inner ugliness.
JD Vance is next Tamar. Isn't it a nightmare?
Thank you, Jen, for calling out the Trump administration's "misrepresentations" about US air superiority over Iran. That the U.S. committed 155 planes to one airman's rescue is, ultimately, a reminder about Trump's war's stupidity and profligacy.
On another note, I was delighted to see Dana Milbank's NYT column about Trump's debasement of J.D. Vance this morning. It was good to see another one of your former Washington Post colleagues abandoning the Bezos Post for NOTUS.
It's too bad that Mr. Milbank couldn't have been lured to The Contrarian staff. When allowed by the editors at the Washington Post, he presented excellent reporting. He also did his research.
Ignorance is not always bliss. Trump has access to people with deep knowledge of the complexities inherent in Iranian history and culture, as well as generals with the ability to think strategically without succumbing to cheerleading about things that go boom. But does he take advantage of this? No. He appears to be incapable of listening to anyone who is not acting as an echo chamber and amplifier of his ignorant views.
This war is surreal. Until Putin invaded Ukraine, I was a pacifist but still never thought I’d ever take Iran’s side.
I think you have the right tone. Thank you. I wonder when Iran will purchase some fighters from China or North Korea and shoot down some of those lumbering b-52’s.
How can you control the skies when you can't control yourself?
James, that's why they scumbag president is using diapers. He can control himself.
If Trump is removed using the 25th amendment we will get Vance who is now in Hungry supporting their dictator.
Vance is a lot of things, most of them awful, but he's not a malignant narcissist with probable dementia. Vance is said to have been opposed to this war initially, which, if true, suggests he would be looking for a way out, and Trump being out of the picture could enable that.
Moot point anyway, as it won't happen. Not with this spineless group of Republicans.
JL, the only thing Vance is not is demented, yet.
The 25th is meant as a temporary stop-gap measure. Vance would only fill in until Trump is able to resume. Vance would not become president. The only viable legal option is impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate. Or Trump somehow dies despite his god-like image of himself. I can hardly wait, and I don't particularly care how it happens. Unfortunately, nothing would change even then, given the people who will simply step into place. Unless we make a LOT of noise, everywhere and all at once.
Trump will not be removed by any invocation of the 25th amendment. It is pure fantasy.
Trump and Hegseth should be treated like the rabid dogs they are.
Since they clearly don't behave, maybe Krist Noem should "teach" them.
Oh, yeah, I like that idea!
All of this is, shamefully, true.