#trumpswindle | #WhatTheyVotedFor
Reminder: Cartoon by Chris Britt, 4 April 2015.
A single paragraph, authored by Barbie Latza Nadeau↱, correspondent to The Daily Beast:
Yutaka Katada, the owner of one of the stricken oil tankers crippled in explosions in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, says the U.S. is wrong about the way the attack was carried out. Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo on Friday, he contradicted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. Navy, which released a video that purports to show an Iranian patrol boat removing a limpet mine from the port side of the Kokuka Courageous. Katada said his ship was attacked on the starboard side by a flying object, not by a mine. “It seems that something flew towards them. That created the hole, is the report I’ve received,” Katada said, according to the Financial Times. “It seems there was a high chance they were attacked by a flying object. The impact was well above the water. I don’t think it was a torpedo.” The Japanese ship owner did not say who might be responsible for the attack. Iran has vehemently denied it was involved.
It is a testable summary; early critique includes an obvious point on many people's minds: "We’re watching in real time", journalist Sam Sacks↱ tweeted, "as the dumbest fucking people try to manufacture a war. It’s almost funny except that it could lead to millions dead."
Some of this ought to be objective: Where is the hole in the boat, and how does that reconcile with whose stories?
Social media is, of course, abuzz to clamorous cynicism recounting the American history of dubious pretenses intended to justify utterly senseless warring. Additionally, this is one of the most incompetent American presidential administrations in history, if not the outright worst. A commentary line from a video game over twenty years ago reminded that a society aspiring to its lowest qualities will see those aspects reflected in the leaders they choose. Not only is President Donald Trump a current high point for the expression of low American qualities, it is also a rarified iteration of, well, something. That is to say, one of the reasons we wouldn't believe this a provocateur job is the point of how poorly it would seem to be executed; by comparison, however, the Trump administration has shown such extraordinary incompetence and foolhardy ignorance that we would be foolish to simply presume against the possibility for the sake of a romanticized presumption of exceptionalism simply not present, or—particularly, we might note, for sake of its incompatibility—really part of how American society works.
Early reports also noted these were not American tankers, and their cargo was headed to Japan; occurring during Prime Minister Abe's meeting with the Iranian government, there remains the real possibility this has to do with Iranians, and not Americans, i.e., an internal affair.
Such as it is, history burgeons with dubious chapters; pretenses to the innocent nobility of American warring schemes are themselves laughable, but even within the strained bounds of such tenuous traditions as appeals to hope and freedom and leadership, well, therein we find the problem. The Trump administration is so bad at this, we would, by Ockham and LaPlace alike, be irresponsible to pretend their innocence, nobility, exceptionalism, or even a clue, in the utter failure to comprehend even basic statesmanship. The failure of statesmanship is one thing, and willful subversion quite another; in any case, American credibility is exceptionally strained right now, and nearly as if that was the point of Trump foreign policy.
Two points to remember about the Administration, Republicans, and their supporters:
• American conservatives are the ones known to argue that government just doesn't work; the cynicism shown the American line vis à vis Iran finds increased receptivity in the marketplace, i.e., so openly doubting presidents, is largely over the course of my lifetime, and particularly and explicitly during the Trump years, a result of Republican dysfunction, scheming, and in recent years, open sabotage.
• In electing Donald Trump, war with Iran is part of what they voted for.
____________________• In electing Donald Trump, war with Iran is part of what they voted for.
Notes:
@SamSacks. "We’re watching in real time as the dumbest fucking people try to manufacture a war. It’s almost funny except that it could lead to millions dead." Twitter. 14 June 2019. Twitter.com. 14 June 2019. http://bit.ly/31AFTgL
Latza Nadeau, Barbie. "Japanese Oil Tanker Owner Says U.S. Is Wrong About Gulf Attack". The Daily Beast. 14 June 2019. TheDailyBeast.com. 14 June 2019. http://bit.ly/2KhLeEs
