Trump Opens a New Front in Iran 3 3 2026

After a bruising battle in which Donald Trump was reminded of the power of Congress, part of  whose mission is to control taxation (which the Supreme Court reaffirmed by ruling Trump’s power to tariff was not legal, as Congress holds the purse strings of government, regarding tariffs, taxes on imports), our lame duck president goes to war in the Middle East.

The front opened in Iran, with the old clunky machinery still moving; the nuclear powered ships, the jet aircraft…  It looked a lot like the start of the Iraq adventure, even featuring a common theme, a nuclear armed opponent, a more democratic system, etc.

George Bush II was also a weak president, like Trump he lacked a majority to govern in the first election,  which he lost to Gore.  Trump lost to Hilary Clinton by 3 and a half million votes, but democracy was a part of the message of both leaders.  Both had a majority on their second try, George II after declaring war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

George Bush II tried to fix an Iraq that had fallen apart after his father’s invasion to stop the Ba’ath socialist party under Saddam Hussein.  George I leveled Iraq, and with little or no resources to rebuild after overthrowing the socialist government there, Islamic State would take over Iraq.  They went backwards not forwards.  And it was due to George I’s fetish about nationalized oil, one he shared with Trump in Iran.

Perhaps Iraq was expected to be able to sell oil to rebuild?  George II put an end to nationalized wells, returning Iraq’s oil to private companies, like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell etc.  But it was never clear how the workers in Iraq would benefit from bourgeois control of the oil, it was just assumed Exxon would help build Iraq, which was in tatters.  Exxon Mobil drills oil.  They are not the Marshall plan. At best, Exxon paid more money for wages than the nationalized oil company did.  But it stopped there.  But they had no intention to build a nation, which was what Iraq really needed.

George II tried to tie Afghanistan to Iraq, going so far as to suggest the two were in tandem.  When Afghanistan defeated the Americans and NATO it is not known if Iraq even put an embassy there, no less military bases, airports, etc.  The two seem to have little contact, although it is now starting to look more and more like Iraq was also a loss, although not as spectacular as the pictures of the aircraft leaving Afghanistan, with the Afghans the field running to board the planes.  Iraq sort of just burned out, and is now poor.  

Trump has killed the Supreme religious leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei, who died in a bombing, helped out by Israel.  There was social unrest in Iran prior to this, and the water supplies were severely low. The latter was aggravating the society; they were trying to not have to import food, but that meant deeper and deeper wells, which are currently almost depleted.  It is not clear what climate change has to do with this, it may have been their own foolishness that caused this drying of Iran.

The bourgeoisie will not be able to replenish Iran’s water supply.  Years of pumping combined with climate change have left Iran poor. The scale of destruction, in about a week the leadership of the country has lost its Supreme Islamic leader. and most of the government buildings are blown up shows the lack of defensive weapons,  the more modern ones that  can shoot down aircraft and missiles. Iran had a few of them, there were films of what looked like F35’s being shot down by Iran, which were blamed on Kuwaiti defence errors.  It reminded us F35’s can be shot down like any other aircraft if you have the weapons.  

Instead Iranian leadership is attacking as far away as Israel, with missiles that have little hope of doing and lasting damage to Israel.  Perhaps it is symbolic?  It looks like a great deal of effort has been put forward, in  a vain effort to project power.

If it is anything like the other wars in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq, it should be obvious this will probably not end with aerial  bombing.  Trump will soon face a grim reality, that ground troops are necessary, just like the other two Middle Eastern wars. We will see then how serious our lame duck tariffman is about projecting power the old fashioned way by the barrel of a gun.

For the man who wanted so badly to have the Nobel Peace Prize, it is a sorry turn.  The war he supposedly ended in Israel  is back in full force in Lebanon. Too close to Iran for Israel.

Time will tell if Trump can regain his footing after the failure of his tariff project.  He has committed his people to another Middle Eastern War.  Afghanistan  borders Iran, it is not clear if they will be taking part, perhaps a jihadi faction?

Russia borders Iran on the Caspian sea, they can get through materials to Iran if they want to.  Will 20th century military technology be able to do the job still?

A sore loser, whose wings have been clipped, in above his head.  

Nicholas Jay Boyes

 Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic 

3 3 2026