—It has become painfully obvious that our recent Iranian bombing campaign landed directly on a cohort of schoolchildren—the latest collateral damage, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would view it—but let’s talk about collateral damage to our country.
Pete Hegseth is a man who reportedly paid a settlement to make sexual assault allegations go away, and who stepped down from veteran organizations after leaving a track record of financial mismanagement and drunken philandering parties. In the real world, this is a resumé of disgrace. In Donald Trump’s world, it makes you a nobleman. And back in reality, this “nobleman” is helping disrupt the global order.
Trump has wedded our foreign policy to Israel, a nation with a completely different tolerance for military activity. Israeli citizens are accustomed to sirens, running to bunkers, and being at odds with neighboring states for decades. As a nation and as a construct born into conflict, that state of affairs has been an inevitable reality since its inception. But America used to be the broker between warring parties. We were the mediators of disagreements, not a partner in bombing children, obliterating oil reserves, and disrupting the world economy.
—The Shifting Sands of Strategy
—What are our goals in this nearly three-week-long conflict? They vary depending on the day, presented in no logical order.
First, Marco Rubio claimed Israel was going to strike, so we jumped in—a narrative quickly walked back when it didn’t play out well in the news cycle. Then, we were told this was about regime change. Obviously, that has yet to work; the son currently in power is even more radical than the father, proving our strategy is actively backfiring. Next, we were told we had to neutralize ballistic missiles and nuclear capabilities, which we supposedly handled in June 2025. Finally, we are allegedly “helping the protesters,” a profound irony considering our nation has stopped defending protesters at our own universities, let alone in Iran.
What is the beginning and end of this executive workaround? Are we simply going to ignore Congress and the War Powers Act? Is this an extension of executive overreach—a very Putinesque approach to warfare? The overriding question remains: Are we going to follow the lead of Israel vis-à-vis Palestine with no plan in place other than toppling a regime and creating chaos? Are we prepared to invade Iran, remove the Islamic Republic’s leaders, and stay in an ongoing, protracted manner to ensure stability? Iran is far more complex and developed than Iraq ever was. We seem to be diving headfirst into a world of uncontrolled chaos and military adventurism.
—The Economic and Strategic Bleed
—This is rapidly becoming a war of attrition. America’s resolve is being eroded by an economic crisis, while Israel desires an “as long as it takes” approach. The conflict has killed thousands, ruptured global supply chains, and driven oil prices to spike above $100 a barrel.
That oil spike is fueling more than $150 million a day in additional revenue for Russia, which Vladimir Putin can use to fund his actions in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the very munitions we are expending are becoming unavailable to Ukraine. We are strengthening Russia’s hand while weakening our own in the face of our real adversaries, Russia and China.
We are burning through years of munitions. Officials told senators the war cost more than $11 billion in the first six days of strikes alone. Each Patriot missile costs millions of dollars. The Tomahawk missiles we are firing—manufactured by RTX—cost roughly $3.6 million each. We are firing these at Iranians who are utilizing cheap drones that cost a mere $30,000 apiece.
In the first week of the war, a strike on a school killed 168 people, mostly children—the deadliest attack on civilians in the war so far. Trump immediately deflected, claiming it was done by Iran. But open-source satellite imagery and procurement records show it was a US-made, long-range Tomahawk missile, complete with the manufacturer’s identifying marks on the circuit board. The Pentagon is now “investigating.” This marriage between Israel and the US insulates Washington from certain political responsibilities. Assassinations of heads of state are carried out by Israeli fighter jets, allowing Trump to avoid the political fallout and pesky legal sensitivities.
If our goal was to persuade Iranian protesters to unseat the Iranian regime, then bombing schools and children is the quickest way to ensure the most radical American dislike imaginable for generations. That’s why Hegseth’s indiscriminate approach to war sounds like a cartoonish sound bite, but he is damaging our nation’s reputation and resolve and ultimately undermining the very principles we stand for as Americans.
—The Evolution of Humanity vs. The Fog of War
—In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, Robert McNamara referenced 19th-century Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz, who described war as a “realm of uncertainty.” But there is no uncertainty about the human cost.
When a country is invaded, or children are killed in a conflict, do we get ramped up on testosterone and brag about what an effective killing machine we are? Or have we retained a basic notion of humanity? This isn’t some hippie idealization; this is the very minimal evolution of civilization. If we truly believe that your average Palestinian or Iranian is a human being whose life has value, how can we follow Trump, Hegseth, and Benjamin Netanyahu into this dark morass of brutality?
We stood by Israel’s decimation of the Palestinian state under the rubric of eliminating Hamas. But that conflict led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, including horrific numbers of women and children. Is that acceptable? Is this what American weapons were meant to be used for? Was the slaughter of tens of thousands the best way to resolve the horrific atrocities of October 7th?
The Torah says Ayin Tachat Ayin—an eye for an eye. According to traditional Jewish interpretation, this refers to a legal principle of proportional justice and monetary compensation, meant to limit excessive vengeance and ensure the punishment fits the crime. It does not mean a village, a nation, or tens of thousands of lives for an eye.
The overriding question is and always has been—are we going to partner with Israel for stability in the Middle East? Are we going to all retreat regularly to bunkers? Is that our future? Are we going to try to eliminate every enemy according to Israel?
—Every Which Way but Loose and The Kardashian Pivot
—My father earned a Purple Heart in World War II—a war worth fighting, and one we were slow and cautious to enter. To hear Pete Hegseth approach geopolitics like an MMA fighter is insulting to that legacy. He aspires to be the guy in a parking lot outside a bar who lost a political debate and now wants a fistfight, posturing like a young Clint Eastwood with a demented monkey as a sidekick. He talks with a maniacal glint, viewing this as a “by any means necessary” operation, despite Iran lacking the armaments to reach the United States.
But some say this war is just a distraction from Pam Bondi and the Epstein files. And they are likely right.
We are Americans; we are the spiritual sons and daughters of the Kardashian family. We love to see the rise of the common man, and we are obsessed with a salacious downfall. Trump knows this instinctively. If there is one thing Donald Trump gets insecure over, going all the way back to his reality TV days, it is low ratings.
—Oil prices and Ratings: Trump’s inverted conundrum
—Only 41% of Americans support this conflict. Trump hasn’t won over the public, and with the economy tanking, he is looking for an exit. Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly, and Tucker Carlson have all defected. Will he bring back Roger Stone to stand in the corner? Can the spirit of Rudy Giuliani be brought back to litigate through the morass?
When the news cycle is unfavorable, Trump knows how to pivot. It’s like changing the channel with a remote control. But a real problem with the war is that rising oil prices are interrupting the American need to return to the party. We need to pivot from the ugly world of war crimes back to the salacious world of sex crimes—always a strong play for this president.
We don’t have triumph on our hands; we have something darker and far more menacing. We can call it a victory if you are tied at the hip to this oversized personality we call the president. But if we want to address true threats—like nuclear proliferation, the environment, education, and healthcare—we cannot indulge in a warm bath of blood that removes our focus.
A president can pardon himself. He can pardon anyone he wants. But he cannot pardon history. And he cannot pardon the soul of a nation that has been stained by the defense of the indefensible.
