Wars are a tool of undermining and undoing democracies

Brother and I had a nice visit. We also had a great lunch with Sister, two Nieces, and Cousin. Sunday evening Brother and I watched a great handbell concert recorded that afternoon. If you want to see what handbells can do this is a wonderful place to start. The performers are 150 of the best handbell musicians around. The event is Distinctly Bronze East 2026 and the concert is here through the end of March. In the handbell world, since the bells are made of bronze, something described as bronze is top level, not like Olympic third place. After Brother arrived midday Friday we didn’t listen to much news. We were a bit surprised Saturday morning on hearing that Israel and the US had bombed Iran. Had we missed something on Friday? No we hadn’t. The start of the war happened overnight. In early afternoon on Saturday Meteor Blades, staff emeritus of Daily Kos reported what we knew of the attack at that time. The post begins with an update with the original story below. Between that and all the other news sources reporting on the war I don’t have anything to add here. News Corpse of the Kos community posted late Saturday commenting on a tweet from the nasty guy that quotes other sources that say the reason why he started the war was because, “Iran tried to interfere in the 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump.” News Corpse notes that there is no evidence of this allegation. Missing from the nasty guy’s tweet is a discussion of the evidence that Russia did interfere in the 2020 election. Midday on Monday Oliver Willis of Kos reported the nasty guy spent the weekend talking to various news organizations, including some he accused of “fake news,” and seemed to tell each of them a different reason why he issued the orders for the attack. Late Monday afternoon Emily Singer of Kos wrote:

The right-wing pundits who usually defend President Donald Trump's most idiotic moves are not pleased with his decision to start an open-ended war with Iran. They’re issuing surprisingly forceful statements condemning the Trump administration's inability to state a clear rationale for getting into yet another Middle East conflict.

Singer quoted far right pundit Matt Walsh, who wrote on X:

So far we’ve heard that although we killed the whole Iranian regime, this was not a regime change war. And although we obliterated their nuclear program, we had to do this because of their nuclear program. And although Iran was not planning any attacks on the US, they also might have been, depending on who you ask. And although we are not fighting this war to free the Iranian people, they are now free, or might be, depending on who seizes power, and we have no idea who that will be. The messaging on this thing is, to put it mildly, confused.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted a press release by Maine Sen. Angus King (independent) who a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He has questions, listed in the release:

1) Why hasn’t President Trump made the case to the American people (and to their representatives in Congress) for such a major commitment of American forces, which could include troops on the ground? 2) Why now? All reports were that negotiations with regard to Iran’s nuclear program were proceeding positively this week with the possibility of a long sought-after diplomatic solution, and there is no indication that new malign actions by the regime were imminent. 3) What, if any, is the plan for an endgame now that the goal has moved from elimination of Iran’s nuclear capacity to regime change? 4) What is the legal and Constitutional authority for this extraordinary action? The Constitution explicitly places the power (and the responsibility) for taking our country into war in the peoples’ representatives in Congress for a reason—the commitment to war is much too important to rest in the hands of one person.

Dan K of the Kos community reported:

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) reports that it is getting a big increase in complaints from troops who are being told that Trump’s attack on Iran is the opening round of the End Times war: MRFF Inundated with Complaints of Gleeful Commanders Telling Troops Iran War is “Part of God’s Divine Plan” to Usher in the Return of Jesus Christ.

Dan K quoted from the MRFF article:

“This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be “afraid” as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now. He 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. He said that “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.” — MRFF active duty NCO client, writing on behalf of themself and 15 other unit members MRFF has received over 200 calls from more than 50 military installations across all the services since Saturday reporting similar disturbing pronouncements from their Christian zealot commanders. [emphases in original]

Dan K said this idea would not have entered the nasty guy’s head because he would not have known or understood the meaning. But even before Pete Hegseth was sworn in as Secretary of Defense he was known as a religious warrior. A couple links to Hegseth’s statements are provided. Dan K concludes, “Anyone still want to bet this ends well?” Lisa Needham of Kos reported on Tuesday the nasty guy and the State Department have asked Americans, between a half and full million of them, to evacuate from 14 Middle East countries. But the State Department has provided no help in doing so and since the airspace has closed there are no commercial flights. This is in contrast to France, Belgium, and Britain along with the European Union using charter and military flights to get their citizens out. In Monday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted David French of the New York Times:

Here’s the bottom line: Trump should have gotten congressional approval for striking Iran, or he should not have struck at all. And because he did not obtain congressional approval, he’s diminishing America’s chances for ultimate success and increasing the chances that we make the same mistakes we — and other powerful nations — have made before.

Tom Nichols and Shashank Joshi tweeted that the most abused words since the attack started have been “preemptive” and “imminent.” Will Bunch tweeted a link to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the tweet Bunch wrote:

No wonder Trump went to war with Iran in the dead of night, with the Capitol empty, most Americans soundly asleep This war is illegal. Full stop. The worst abuse of presidential power in American history aims to cement a dictatorship on U.S. soil.

The title and subtitle of the article:

A mad king’s illegal war on Iran is a cry for regime change ... in Washington. Democracy really did die in darkness as Donald Trump’s unconstitutional war in Iran stamps America as a dictatorship.

Timothy Snyder in his Substack:

From the United States, the most plausible angle of view is domestic politics, not foreign policy. Wars are a tool of undermining and undoing democracies. Given that we have multiple examples of this from both modern and ancient democracy, and given the behavior of Trump and his allies in general, this must be an interpretive method for these attacks. The relationship between foreign war and domestic authoritarianism can take two basic forms: 1) we must all rally because there is a war and everyone who oppose the war is a traitor; 2) we must hold elections under specific conditions favorable to the party in power. This is utterly predictable and should be easy to halt and indeed to reverse.

Jon Ralston quoted and provided a link to an article in the Nevada Independent:

“This is chutzpah taken to a new level, gaslighting done better than Charles Boyer could have executed: Persuade people that elections are compromised so you can compromise elections.” Trump and his enablers are laying the groundwork to muck around in the Nov. election.

In the comments is a cartoon by Toonerman showing Jiminy Cricket talking to Pinocchio, who is looking at articles about what the nasty guy has said.

No Pinoch... it’s still wrong to lie. It always will be, even if you are the president, or a powerful pol, or a religious leader, or a trusted “news network.” Lying corrupts the most important aspect of being human; the ability to make free and rational choices, and by lying, you’re trying to rob others of their freedom to choose rationally. Lying chips away at trust. Liars are losers.

In Tuesday’s roundup Chitown Kev quoted Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect who noted Bush II decapitated the Iraqi regime by forcing out Saddam Hussein. The nasty guy seems to have done the same thing in Iran.

Such are the limits of government decapitations. They are not a form of regime change. Absent the ability of the populace to take the power that should be theirs, decapitations may just be a form of upward mobility for the regime’s surviving elites, now that there are unfilled slots above them.

Vanda Felbab-Brown of The Brookings Institution wrote:

In the first days of airstrikes, the United States and Israel killed the ayatollah as well as several top leaders of the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), adding to those killed in July 2025 during the joint attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. But the Iranian regime is vast, with sprawling religious authority, layers of officers across various armed branches and militias, and widespread control of the country’s economic assets. Even if the United States and Israel continue mowing down newly-replaced leaders for weeks, the IRGC and various armed forces and their economic assets will not just melt away, even if they eventually fracture. [...] The Trump administration broke a cruel, brutal, and dangerous regime with little clarity, planning, readiness, and accountability for how to foster a new, desirable replacement system.

Sophia Tesfaye of Salon:

The president did not deliver a traditional address to the American people on network television, instead posting a hastily-edited eight-minute video statement to Truth Social. Israel assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of an adversarial state. American service members are dead — and the president has acknowledged there will likely be more to come. Iranian missiles are flying, hitting Israel and U.S. military outposts and interests throughout the Middle East. And the best the American people receive is a 3 a.m. Truth Social announcement delivered in a MAGA hat. No senior administration officials have appeared on the flagship public affairs programs that, for all their flaws, have long served as a forum for democratic accountability. Instead of structured briefings, Trump spent the weekend personally calling journalists — more than a dozen of them — fielding one or two questions at a time from the comfort of Mar-a-Lago. He spoke with reporters from The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Axios, the New York Times, ABC News and other media outlets, offering a scattershot array of justifications and timelines. To one outlet, the aim is “freedom for the people” of Iran. To another, perhaps this can end “in two or three days” with a deal. To a third, it might take “four to five weeks,” and he has “three very good choices” to take control in Tehran — until, in another conversation, he suggests those choices are dead. [...] Donald Trump’s war on the media has paid off. When the president bypasses traditional forums, it feels like just another norm shattered in an endless stream of shattered norms. When he declines to brief the public in a sustained way, it barely registers. When contradictions pile up, they are chalked up to style rather than substance. In the end, however, the punditry did not need to be coerced into cheerleading. It just needed, as it always has, the opportunity.

The Editorial Board of The New York Times wrote about four law firms that were attacked by the nasty guy and sued him rather than submit. Courts have already struck down the executive orders that attempted to punish them. And now the nasty guy’s administration has accepted defeat.

Nine other firms folded and struck deals intended to mollify the president. The deals included promises to perform millions of dollars of pro bono work on behalf of Trump-friendly clients. These nine firms all failed a high-stakes character test. Their leaders faced a choice between submitting to a bully and doing the right thing. The firms are not household names to most Americans, but it is worth listing them here. We hope that clients looking for fearless attorneys and law students deciding where to work will remember which elite firms were unwilling to fight back. Meekness is not a quality most people seek in a lawyer.

In the comments is a tweet by Saul Staniforth:

Pete Hegseth: "If you kill Americans.. anywhere on earth we will hunt you down without apology & without hesitation and we will kill you" Unless the American is killed by Israelis in the occupied West Bank, in which case we'll do nothing while we continue arming your killers.

John Karalis added:

*Offer not valid in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Commenter kurious quoted an article from Raw Story about military commanders saying the Iran attack will bring about the End Times. Here’s a bit of the quote:

"Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100 percent accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology," MRFF president Mikey Weinstein added.

Babylonbros posted a cartoon showing two people arguing:

One: Let’s go Trump!! Taking care of Israel and taking out Iran! Two: I’m writing that down! One: Okay. Two: Sign it, please! One: Okay. Two: Now date it! One: Okay. – Why? Two: I’m going to show it to you the minute yo blame the price of gas on Democrats!

AMusingFool responded to the comments, “Maybe this war will turn out fine.”

Just want to flag this line. There’s no such thing as a war turning out fine. Might end up as a geopolitical win, but that requires ignoring a s***-ton of terrible stuff in the middle.

Raging Pencils posted a cartoon showing a discussion between a teacher and student Billy:

Teacher: Billy, can you tell us the three branches of government? Billy: Sure! Reality TV, Fox News, and the Heritage Foundation. Teacher: Not quite, Billy. Try again. Billy: How about the extortionists, the lap-dogs, and the jaundiced? Teacher: Now Billy... Billy: Malfeasance, incompetence and sadism? Quisling day-care, the confederate short-bus, and pay-for-play due process? Teacher: Uhhhh... Billy: Child-f***ers, conservative enablers, and racists royalists! Am I getting warmer? Teacher, with head on desk, “Hot. Red hot.”