With over 30,000 documented lies to his credit (or discredit), expecting Donald Trump to speak anything close to the truth is delusional. Just last week, he claimed that Minnesota Democrats want to forcibly change children’s gender identity without parental consent, and that the American economy is doing great!
Only those at the farthest fringes of MAGA-land can blindly swallow those lies without a bout of CVS (cyclic vomiting syndrome). But those nearer to the middle of MAGA may accept some misleading statements simply because they were uttered by the great man himself. He brushed off concerns about the lengthy and misbegotten war on Iran on Oct. 5, stating, “It’s a small price to pay for keeping our world safe, our country safe.”
Without changing the meaning, his words can be simply recast as a conditional, if-then statement: “If we’re making our world and country safer, then the costs are a small price to pay.” The first if-clause must be true for the second then-clause to be true as well.
Unfortunately, both are clearly and unmistakably false. We are not making our country or the world safer, and we’re paying an exorbitant cost in blood and treasure.
An unstable Middle East with countries actively pursuing a nuclear weapon is a threat to everyone. In 2003, the U.S. under George W. Bush tried to solve the problem militarily after lying about Iraq’s possession of “weapons of mass destruction.” The war lasted eight more years and the costs were astronomical: about $2 trillion; 4,500 American deaths and 32,000 wounded; 300,00 civilian deaths; 15 million refugees and homeless. The war continued a cycle of violence that persists today, without progress towards safety or stability.
Barack Obama’s negotiators hammered out a deal in 2015, with the support and agreement of China, Russia, Great Britain, France, Germany, and the European Union. Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program to work below the scale needed for nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from punishing economic sanctions. Its provisions worked and were certified by Trump’s own administration before he withdrew the U.S. in 2018.
Today, Trump’s unprovoked and illegal war has resulted in deadly chaos in the Middle East: ships destroyed in the Strait of Hormuz; attacks by the U.S., Iran, and Islamic extremists on infrastructure (airports, bridges, highways), and the usual collateral damage of war, including schoolchildren, hospitals, and neighborhoods. The U.S. and the world are less safe now than when Trump’s war of distraction (from the Epstein files) began.
And the economic price is only small for millionaires and billionaires. The Center for American Progress reports that the war increased costs for American households by about $1,200 each through July, equal to about about $2,200 through October. Millionaires need to pay about $1 more for each $500 of income; billionaires pay $1 for each $500,000.
Those numbers are so small as to be imperceptible. If millionaires’ yearly income is equal to a full bathtub (about 50 gallons), they’d only have to remove about 1½ cups of water to pay for the war; for billionaires, it’s not even a drop from their bucket, let alone a full tub.
But 90% of Americans earn an average of $40-45,000 yearly, and pay about $1 for each $25 earned. The war has taken two full gallons from their bathtub of earnings, which was barely enough to cover costs to begin with. Subtracting more from the borderline budget of seniors and low-wage workers can leave them high and dry, just at the tipping point, needing to choose between paying for medicine, rent, food, and daycare.
For those at the top, it’s a small economic price to pay; for us, the impact is immediate and severe. Trump actually blurted out the truth by admitting “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation” related to the war, “not even a little bit.”
The same is true for the human costs. Trump and his followers lack empathy for people who face hardships such as disabilities, disease, discrimination, and deaths. Ask the families of the 20-plus military dead and nearly a thousand wounded if their losses in a senseless war are a small price to pay.
When Trump paints his war in Iran as a patriotic sacrifice, it’s an appealing thought since it hides such a grim reality: it’s a complete waste of young lives and the hard-earned money of American taxpayers. Our world is clearly less safe, and the cost in lives and dollars is far greater than the “small price” he imagines.
Allen Woods is a freelance writer, author of the Revolutionary-era historical fiction novel “The Sword and Scabbard,” and Greenfield resident. His column appears regularly on a Saturday. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.