It might be that the problem is really that the US military is still built around a war that nobody fights any longer. That’s the reason Russia isn’t making progress despite giving its all: it’s fighting like it’s 1950, but it’s 2026. By that I mean the command structure, the expensive weapons, the difficult procurement, the crappy logistics - not the tech, which is apparently not that bad.
We saw the first inklings of this in the Second Iraq War, when the military victory was complete and immediate, and it didn’t matter at all, because the real war happened after Iraq had surrendered.
Trump’s biggest problem is that he’s stuck in old times. He talks about tariffs as if the rest of the world hadn’t realized they don’t work, he talks about battleships as if all navies in the world hadn’t declared them obsolete. He is a product of an ancient time, and it shows with the fights he picks.
This one is particularly dumb, because American presidents have wanted to punish Iran militarily for 40 years, yet they never did anything precisely because it’s not a winnable war. Someone should have told him it wasn’t going to work out. Heck, they probably did, and he decided he was smarter than them all.
Basically, he surrounded himself with sycophants, so naturally they all told him that whatever he decided was the right answer and/or they would support him no matter what. Future generations will use this as an example of how NOT to do things.
It might be that the problem is really that the US military is still built around a war that nobody fights any longer. That’s the reason Russia isn’t making progress despite giving its all: it’s fighting like it’s 1950, but it’s 2026. By that I mean the command structure, the expensive weapons, the difficult procurement, the crappy logistics - not the tech, which is apparently not that bad.
We saw the first inklings of this in the Second Iraq War, when the military victory was complete and immediate, and it didn’t matter at all, because the real war happened after Iraq had surrendered.
Trump’s biggest problem is that he’s stuck in old times. He talks about tariffs as if the rest of the world hadn’t realized they don’t work, he talks about battleships as if all navies in the world hadn’t declared them obsolete. He is a product of an ancient time, and it shows with the fights he picks.
This one is particularly dumb, because American presidents have wanted to punish Iran militarily for 40 years, yet they never did anything precisely because it’s not a winnable war. Someone should have told him it wasn’t going to work out. Heck, they probably did, and he decided he was smarter than them all.
NYT had an article about the decision to go to war. It’s very “first draft of history” but interesting reading:
https://archive.md/pffb3
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-iran-war.html
Basically, he surrounded himself with sycophants, so naturally they all told him that whatever he decided was the right answer and/or they would support him no matter what. Future generations will use this as an example of how NOT to do things.