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Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet?

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Bradley K. Sherman wrote:

>https://inews.co.uk/opinion/trump-disastrous-error-revealed-unstable-
4305364

Trump has made a disastrous error - and revealed just how unstable he is

 

An old saying holds that "there is nothing quite so terrifying as a mad 
sheep". Who first said this is uncertain, but if they watched President 
Donald Trump's press conference on Thursday, in which he showed himself 
sunk deep in delusions about his attack on Iran, they might confess 
themselves mistaken.

Far more terrifying than a deranged sheep is a US leader, a man able to 
destroy the planet, being detached from reality, looking increasingly 
paranoid, threatening violence against others and, in the most serious 
cases, committing actual violence against perceived enemies.

Though Trump showed signs of chronic instability during his first term in 
the White House, these have become more florid and consequential since he 
was re-elected in 2024, and especially since the launch of a surprise 
attack on Iran in association with Israel in the midst of diplomatic 
negotiations that were making progress.

Three weeks into the war, he still cannot give a coherent explanation as to 
why he started it and why it is in America's best interest. As for its 
devastating impact on the world economy, his response has been to deny that 
his "short-term excursion" is having such a calamitous effect, though every 
screen in the world is showing towering flames and black smoke shooting up 
from the oil and gas fields of the Gulf.

I used to quote a former aide of Trump who described the President as "a 
cunning nutter" because the phrase succinctly summed up his bizarre mix of 
shrewd political operator and all-too-real nuttiness. Neither were to be 
underestimated, but it is in his second term – and above all in the last 
few weeks – that the shrewdness has diminished and the nuttiness deepened.

Deterioration in Trump's judgement is often compared to the megalomania 
shown by several world leaders who came to believe that they possessed 
semi-divine powers. This led Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait in 1990 and 
Vladimir Putin Ukraine in 2022 – and Trump to attack Iran on 28 February, 
2026, in apparent expectation of a quick victory.

As with the disastrous Iraqi and Russian invasions, his decision was 
encouraged by his tight circle of courtiers, while sceptics were ignored or 
demonised as disloyal. Megalomania is common among the powerful, but in 
Trump's case it combines with pre-existing traits, such as a lack of 
conscience, remorse, truthfulness or empathy which may go along with 
impulsiveness and over-confidence.

Yet, deeper questions must be asked about why a person with such a 
personality should have become US President? In many societies, his glaring 
faults would disbar him from holding any post of authority, but Americans 
have twice voted to send him to the White House. Why do his failings make 
such an exact – and for him productive – fit as an antidote or disguise for 
the failings of America? American and European commentators may be too 
invested in a benign vision of America – even when they detest Trump – to 
take an unsparingly objective view of what his imperial dominance tells us 
about the United States.

Profound, if unsettling, explanations for America's embrace of Trump come 
from the Vietnamese political commentator, Sony Thang, who shows no such 
pro-American inhibitions. Writing on X, he says: "There is a stage of 
decline where empire no longer seeks competent managers. It seeks 
performers... That is Trump's function. America has lost wars, lost trust, 
lost legitimacy, lost the future. Trump converts decay into theater. He 
takes civilizational shame and recycles it as swagger... Takes moral 
collapse and sells it as strength. He is not solving the contradiction 
[between the two]. He is making it dance. That is why he fascinates even 
those who fear him. He turns decomposition into content. "

All too true, a skilled and experienced performer like Trump is able to get 
away with incompetence, theatrics, swagger, moral collapse and national 
decline for an astonishingly long period. Failures are simply relabelled as 
successes. But the one door the performer must never open is the one that 
leads to war, when mendacity and gross errors are paid for in human blood.

Trump has now made this mistake and it has instantly shown up his inability 
to deal with a real crisis. This happened before not in war but at the 
height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 when he suggested exploring the 
idea that people might inject themselves with disinfectant to escape the 
coronavirus.

A feature of all-powerful and paranoid leaders is that they are easily 
manipulated by those able to exploit their fears and fantasies. Israeli 
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an expert at doing just that and 
persuaded Trump – reportedly at the end of last year – that victory against 
Iran would be cheap, easy and in American interests.

"I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war with Iran, " wrote Joe 
Kent, the head of the National Counterterrorism Centre, lucidly summing up 
what happened in his resignation letter this week. "Iran posed no imminent 
threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to 
pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. "

An allegation against Trump is that he does not have an endgame in Iran, 
but this not entirely correct because his ultimate aim is to make America, 
allied to Israel, permanently dominant in the Middle East. To do this, they 
need to knock out Iran as a regional rival. Israel's strategy is clear cut: 
assassinate enemy leaders and carry out a scorched earth policy in Gaza, 
Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. Whole societies are targeted. Israel might like 
regime change in Iran, but its primary purpose is to degrade the country in 
every way so it ceases to be a player in the geopolitics of the region, 
whoever holds power in Tehran.

Trump sounds baffled that America's military strength is not translating 
into political gains. So far, the Iranian government shows no sign of 
splitting, capitulating or losing control, despite the killing of so many 
of its leading figures. Paradoxically, the US is today politically weaker 
and Iran politically stronger than they were three weeks ago because the 
Iranian regime has survived so far and, furthermore, has gained leverage by 
showing that it can inflict devastating damage on the world economy. The US 
is weaker than it was simply by failing to defeat Iran and is blamed 
internationally for deliberately causing an economic disaster.

As the world economy shudders because of the war he began, Trump is reduced 
to bombastic declarations of victory over Iran, comically interspersed with 
promises not to harm its oil and gas industry, to stop Israel doing so, and 
wild threats to do terrible things to Iran if it retaliates. "I will do 
such things – what they are, yet I know not, but they shall be the terrors 
of the earth, " says King Lear in a famous scene. "Oh fool, I shall go mad! 
"

I was writing meaty thoughts about the US and Israeli attack on Iran, when 
I was suddenly engulfed by a more local crisis – the outbreak of meningitis 
B MenB in Canterbury where I live. Suddenly, we were topping the national 
news as alarm spread on Sunday after two young people died and several 
others were confirmed as having contracted the disease. Initial cases 
involved people who had attended super-spreading events at Club Chemistry 
night club on 5-7 March.

I had often stood waiting for a taxi outside Canterbury East station 
opposite the front door of Club Chemistry housed in a red brick Victorian 
building. When I visited it on Tuesday it was understandably shut and a 
deep clean was reportedly going on inside – though I wonder if it will 
survive its current unwanted fame.

Nobody was about when I was there, aside from a camera crew who were just 
packing up. I drove to the University of Kent, high on a hill overlooking 
Canterbury, where I saw students queuing up to get antibiotics in the 
Senate building. Those I spoke to did not sound particularly worried, 
possibly because those most panicked had already left the campus. A member 
of the university kitchen staff pointed out to me that this is the last 
week of term, and many of the students normally leave early and the 
meningitis outbreak had simply speeded up the exodus. This point is of 
importance because media reports give the impression that there are still 
5,000 students at the university ready to be vaccinated, when in reality 
they are scattered across the country. These are presumably traceable but 
the vaccination campaign will be more complex than it looks.

I wrote a lengthy report on the outbreak published in The i Paper, but let 
me add some details and thoughts not included there: everybody's reaction – 
public, politicians, health experts, media – to meningitis is entirely 
conditioned by their experience of the Covid-19 epidemic. Out and about in 
Canterbury, I felt I was in a time machine taking me back to 2020. At that 
time, it was at first surprising and alarming to see so many wearing face 
masks, but when they sprouted everywhere in Canterbury this week, it almost 
felt like a return to normality.

How to describe the mood in the city? Only five local schools have closed 
so far as I know, so the morning and afternoon traffic still clogs the 
medieval street I live in. At the time of writing there are 29 confirmed 
and suspected cases, making it an unprecedented outbreak for MenB in the 
UK. Does this mean a new more invasive strain? Has it peaked? (we were 
always asking these questions during the pandemic)?

Alarm has grown since earlier in the week. This is understandable: one 
child in a coma in one large school will terrify all the parents. So, 
obviously, MenB is our main topic of conversation in the city: "So what is 
your favourite theory about where the meningitis came from? " I heard one 
woman sing out to another across a near empty restaurant.

As a superspreading hub, Club Chemistry would be difficult to beat. "People 
jam packed together and plenty of snogging, " commented a taxi driver. 
Student accommodation at the university with five or six students sharing a 
kitchen would also make transmission of the illness easier. But with so 
many students already gone, a single student left behind will worry about 
falling ill and nobody within calling distance to summon help.

Key to the future is speed of transmission of the illness, which should 
become clear in the next few days.

The confrontation between Shia and Sunni Muslims has been a central feature 
in Middle East politics since the Iranian revolution in 1979. Up to about 
six years ago the story was of the inexorable rise of the Shia communities 
from Yemen to Lebanon to Iraq, but now this is going into reverse. Targeted 
by Israel, US and the Sunni Arab states, they have their backs to the wall.

The Shia-Sunni struggle was at its most violent and prolonged in Iraq 
between 2003 and 2017. The Shia majority, roughly 60 per cent of the 46 
million Iraqi population, replaced the Sunni Arabs, some 20 per cent, as 
the dominant sect (the Kurds make up another 20 per cent). Two Sunni 
insurrections against the US occupation and Shia rule, the second led by 
Islamic State (Isis), were defeated by 2019. "The Sunni have been 
marginalised in the Baghdad power structure since the US invasion in 2003, 
" an Iraqi friend and close observer of the political scene, told me. "Now 
the Sunni want to make a comeback. Sunni tribal and business leaders are 
making contacts with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates – and even Israel – 
looking for support.

The Sunni in Iraq had already been strengthened with the fall of president 
Bashar al-Assad, the core of whose regime were the Alawites (a Shia sect) 
who was overthrown in 2024. Sunni Arabs of northern and western Iraq now 
look to a friendly Sunni-dominated, anti-Iranian regime across the border 
in Syria. The other great buttress of the Iraqi Shia has been Shia Iran, 
but these now have their own troubles.

From the start of the Iran war in 1980 to the defeat of Isis in 2017, there 
was a permanent and bloody political crisis in Iraq. Is that crisis now 
coming back? The complex carve up of political and economic power in Iraq 
is inevitably destabilised by the US-Israel attack on Iran.

After 2003, the US and Iran openly competed and covertly cooperated in 
preserving an unstable balance of power in Iraq. That cooperation is now 
dead. Iran will look to use the 100,000 strong pro-Iranian popular 
mobilisation units or Hashd al-Shaabi in its favour and against the US and 
its allies. These paramilitaries are already attacking US bases and 
facilities in Iraq including the US embassy. They are also accused of 
firing drones into Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Israeli and US airstrikes have 
hit Hashd headquarters, camps and arms depots.

Battles for political power in Iraq are hard fought because they are at 
bottom a battle for a share in Iraq's oil revenues that have hovered a bit 
below $100bn a year. The Hashd are well integrated into the Iraqi 
government, which pays their salaries and gives them a kleptocratic share 
of the Iraqi economic pie. "Several Hashd commanders are billionaires, " 
one Iraqi political observer told me. "They don't want to lose their power 
to make money. " They probably do not want to join the war on Iran's side, 
but they also may not have much choice.

Iraq has a sort of Tammany Hall-type system in which job and money are 
distributed through a quota-type system. This has kept going because it is 
fuelled by Iraq's oil revenues. This pays the 4.5 million government 
employees and three million government employees on pension. The closure of 
the Strait of Hormuz by Iran threatens to upend this whole rickety 
structure because Iraq has – unlike the Arab oil states of the Gulf – few 
financial reserves.

If the Iran war goes on it will be impossible for Iraq to avoid being 
sucked in. The Iraq crisis is back in business.

A good succinct account of what is happening in the under-reported war in 
Lebanon by Lebanese commentator Ali Harb. Some of what he says may also 
apply to Iran.

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Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-07 15:22 -0500
  Re: No war was declared by Congress you ignorant Berkeley alumnus... Bay Area TDS Clinic <trump@waa.waa> - 2026-03-08 01:00 +0300
  Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-07 22:00 +0000
    Re: When was war declared by Congress again? Starboard <right@side.com> - 2026-03-08 08:10 +0000
    Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> - 2026-03-08 08:54 +0000
  Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Promises Promises <hotmail@hotmail.edu> - 2026-03-08 02:04 +0000
    Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (MummyChunk) - 2026-03-08 08:44 -0400
  Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-09 23:13 +0000
    Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Mitchell Holman <noemail@aol.com> - 2026-03-10 02:05 +0000
      Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-10 19:29 +0000
        Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-10 21:44 +0000
          Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-11 02:48 +0000
            Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-11 18:11 +0000
              Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-11 21:36 +0000
                Re: No Queers Or Trannies In The War Room! Leroy Soetoro <leroysoetoro@americans-first.com> - 2026-03-13 20:16 +0000
              Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-11 22:13 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? RichA <rander3127@gmail.com> - 2026-03-12 01:56 +0000
              Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? NoBody <NoBody@nowhere.com> - 2026-03-12 07:15 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-14 11:06 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-14 22:09 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? "chine.bleu" <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2026-03-14 15:48 -0700
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-15 11:57 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? -hh <recscuba_google@huntzinger.com> - 2026-03-15 14:28 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-16 11:48 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (MummyChunk) - 2026-03-16 09:38 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-17 00:04 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-17 02:09 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-18 02:20 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Boomtown <romneysrhinoblaster@delecto.com> - 2026-03-18 05:01 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-19 14:00 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-20 23:32 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-21 13:19 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-22 12:18 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-22 13:36 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Mitchell Holman <noemail@aol.com> - 2026-03-22 13:44 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Ralf <Aribas@ariba.me> - 2026-03-22 14:55 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-04-07 17:44 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Mitchell Holman <noemail@aol.com> - 2026-04-08 02:02 +0000
  Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? marika <marika5000@gmail.com> - 2026-03-25 03:18 +0000
    Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? "chine.bleu" <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2026-03-24 20:37 -0700
      Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-25 19:54 +0000
        Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-26 18:53 +0000
          Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? "chine.bleu" <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2026-03-26 14:40 -0700
            Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-28 23:48 +0000
              Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-03-30 11:05 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Mitchell Holman <noemail@aol.com> - 2026-03-30 13:08 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-04-02 23:01 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-04-04 21:55 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-04-05 02:43 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? NoBody <NoBody@nowhere.com> - 2026-04-05 07:00 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? bks@panix.com (Bradley K. Sherman) - 2026-04-05 11:13 +0000
                Re: Is the left still talking shit about things they are too chicken to do? chose@INVALID_.gov - 2026-04-05 19:28 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? NoBody <NoBody@nowhere.com> - 2026-04-06 10:11 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Lee <cleetis@gmail.com> - 2026-04-06 14:55 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> - 2026-04-06 11:41 -0500
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-04-06 16:42 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Lee <cleetis@gmail.com> - 2026-04-07 15:00 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-04-07 17:37 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Lee <cleetis@gmail.com> - 2026-04-08 14:57 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-04-08 12:20 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? phoenix <j63840576@gmail.com> - 2026-04-08 10:22 -0600
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Mitchell Holman <noemail@aol.com> - 2026-04-08 17:36 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Gronk <invalidt@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-13 22:50 -0600
                As Usual, Lee's TDS Takes Over His Brain, Spewing Nonsense And Lies AlleyCat <katt@gmail.com> - 2026-04-08 23:18 -0500
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? marika <marika5000@gmail.com> - 2026-04-11 23:39 +0000
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? "chine.bleu" <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2026-04-11 19:16 -0700
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-04-12 07:17 -0400
                Re: Is the War In *Iraq* Over Yet? Governor Swill <governor.swill@gmail.com> - 2026-04-12 00:29 -0400
                Re: Is Amazon going to deliver my tranny doll today? epsteinpedophile1@americans-first.com - 2026-04-05 19:20 +0000
                Is This the REAL Reason Trump Fired Pam Bondi? Fruehauf <fruehauf@essen.de> - 2026-04-03 10:13 +0200

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