My favorite Peanuts cartoon describes Lucy and Snoopy sitting on a bench, Lucy saying, “Worrying is simply a waste of time!” I used to have a stamp of it. I’d just press it on the back of the envelopes of my letters. (Yeah, folks! We really used to use paper mail in the prehistoric ages before email!)
The so-called motto of the Peanuts gang was this: “Worrying won't stop the bad stuff from happening, it just stops you from enjoying the good.” Ergo, the lesson for U.S. President Donald Trump: “Que Sera Sera!", meaning "Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see."
Trump simply wants to cut his losses and end the Iran war, but Israel stops him. As long as Mossad has the uncensored originals of what is called the Epstein Files and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is about to experience an untimely political downfall, nobody can cut losses and end the wars in the Middle East. So, Mr. Trump either bites the bullet and takes his chances with the forthcoming U.S. midterm elections or gives that bullet to Netanyahu to fire at the mullahs of Iran.
The assassination of the commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force in Beirut just signaled that the war in Lebanon will continue. Any escalation in Lebanon against the mullahs’ key ally, Hezbollah, means no peace in the Strait of Hormuz. No matter how much Trump extends a cease-fire with Iran despite their firing on the U.S. ships, the U.S. is Israel’s ally and is responsible for the strikes against Beirut. Mr. Trump’d better stop Netanyahu from tearing him all apart. As we say in Turkish, he kisses the hand he can't bite.
It’s true. The U.S. economic mood is starting to sour, and its society is psychologically shattered, its politics are in chaos, and internal dissent is on the rise. Historically, Americans lose their adventurous spirit in foreign wars. Yeah! But there are 174 days to those fateful midterms, and tomorrow is another day, especially in politics. So, rather than dying every day, you take your chances and kiss a mullah’s hand to get out of Hormuz. He could even let Hegseth do the dirty part of putting his tail between his legs while the U.S. Navy sails out.
Last week, not only John Mearsheimer, an American international relations scholar and my favorite Zionism basher, but almost all members of realistic school of diplomacy, said in unison that Trump needed something spectacular to end Israel’s war on Iran in such a way that his “exit ramp” would not hurt Israel, and help him pass the scrutiny of the Israel lobby and Democratic members of the Congress. Trump had declared a new military campaign called Project Freedom, and it sounded like what experts had opined about. Mearsheimer even said that Trump might drop a couple of tactical nuclear bombs on the already hit sites of the supposed Iranian nuclear facilities.
But right after that, he quickly paused Project Freedom and said he would extend the cease-fire despite the Iranian fires on the U.S. naval vessels. He said the pause would allow more time for negotiations. However, 36 hours later, he repeated his usual insults to female reporters and refused to answer their questions. But responding to a male reporter, Trump said, they would know when the cease-fire between the U.S. and Iran was over because “there would be 'one big glow over Iran.'”
We have seen the first and last image of that kind of glow when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the 1.5 million innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities of Japan and killed over 246,000 of them. There were some other images from the U.S. test firing of nuclear weapons, but none of them had that “big glow” over a town. Back to the safe exit ramp from Israel’s war on Iran. That is, safe for Trump, but fatal for many civilians in Iran and probably in neighboring countries around the Persian Gulf, Türkiye and Pakistan.
The $3.8 billion annual subsidy to Israel could not be enough for America’s untouchable ally if it is left with those nuclear facilities, which would begin to roll out atomic bombs that could wipe not only Israel off the face of the earth, but the U.S., too. Nobody is asking Trump or his goons, JD, Little Marco or Pentagon Pete how Iran was going to deliver those bombs all the way to America. If you dare to ask, he starts yelling how terrible a reporter you are! That absurd war the U.S. has drawn itself into has made the forthcoming midterms arithmetic too difficult to interpret.
Even if Trump nukes his way out of it, energy prices are not going back to $6 a gallon. All over the world, supply logistics are in disarray. A global recession is no longer a hypothetical risk. On the contrary, even a small tactical device in Iran is going to have the risk of bigger losses from extreme market events all around the world.
It could certainly bring about the long-presumed disintegration of NATO. Europeans will find a way to resolve 'the Ukrainian trouble' without further escalation. Russia would like to maintain its deterrence but without further spooking Europeans, especially the Germans. The responsibility now falls on those complacent intellectuals who had grown accustomed to the comfort of the U.S. commitment and protection of Europe. They are now holding the baby themselves, and they’d better learn quickly how to deal with Russia.
Meanwhile, in Israel, the left and the right are about to form an alliance with the center, which aims to replace Netanyahu in the upcoming elections. This could remove the leverage created by the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben-Gvir alliance over Trump.
As usual, Lucy was right! Worrying will never change the outcome, but you need to do something about the outcome.
