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Lessons from the Vietnam War for Iran

We Americans are an impatient lot. If we must engage in warfare, we would prefer it be wrapped up in weeks, not months, and certainly not years like World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In those wars we had the draft, so more Americans were engaged in fighting and watching their progress, or lack thereof. Today, while recruiting numbers have increased in our all-volunteer military, the taste for war among the public has declined. One of President Trump’s positions that attracted voters was his promise to end wars, not start new ones. Granted, any candidate running for president can ...

Dems be warned: Trump knows your weak spots

Sure, the “No Kings” marches drew millions rightly protesting Donald Trump’s assaults on our democratic institutions. But Democrats must dig deeper and ask how Trump could actually win another term after trying to overturn the 2020 election results with a violent attack on the Capitol. It wasn’t as though most Americans adored him. Gallup’s approval rating for Trump on election eve was a sad 46%. Trump carried the 2024 vote by playing the Democrats on three issues that aggravate even moderate Americans. They are open borders, the demonization of law enforcement and racial, ...

War and morality

War is the most horrific series of events upon which any government can engage. It is systematic, industrialized, indiscriminate killing. It kills innocent adults and little girls. It often ruins the post-war lives of the killers. It is young men violently fighting old men’s power games. It is the health of the state. The war President Donald Trump is waging against the people and the government of Iran is immoral, unconstitutional and unlawful. Yet, because Congress is not doing its job, there appears to be no relief in sight until Trump finds a face-saving way to erase his grave ...

What Trump is turning the US economy into

When he ran for president again in 2024, Donald Trump made three promises to the American public: First, he said he’d “secure” the Southern border. Most Americans now believe he’s gone too far in this. Second, he’d avoid foreign wars. He said: “We’ve spent $8 trillion in the Middle East, and we’re not fixing our roads in this country? How stupid. How stupid is it? And we’re not fixing our highways, our tunnels, our bridges, our hospitals, even.” Umm. How well has this promise turned out? His third promise was to bring prices down and create more jobs. He said: ...

Feeling a little bit of nostalgia for a bad habit

I miss smoking. There. I’ve said it. Now, I don’t miss it enough to go out and buy a $17 pack of cigarettes — which is apparently the lunatic price these days — and sit down and smoke them, but I certainly miss it enough to hope that if I’m ever on a plane that’s about to go down in a fiery ball the Bermuda Triangle, some kind soul on board will have, and agree to bum me, a square. God help me if the only combustible on offer is a vape, which won’t precisely do the trick. I don’t blame anyone who’s trying to preserve their health, however dubious the method, ...

Strive to behave as ‘Easter People’ throughout year

For Christians, Sunday is the holiest day of the year — Easter. It is a day of celebration, commemorating the resurrection of the Son. For millennia, this season also has been a time to celebrate the return of the sun, when our minds are on a kind of rebirth and living again in the light. Easter brings us joy, yes. It also teaches us about sacrifice and love; and gives us a brightly colored reminder that we are supposed to love one another, too. For many, it is a day of dressing up, perhaps attending church, having a meal with family and then giving in to modern traditions ...