History has a way of circling back when nations refuse to learn. Two decades ago, George W. Bush plunged the United States into a catastrophic war with Iraq under the false banner of preemptive defense. We were told Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We were told democracy would bloom in the desert. What followed was chaos, death, and destabilization that still shapes the world today.
Now, Donald Trump has done something chillingly familiar. He has dropped bunker-busting bombs on Iranian soil, alone, without congressional debate, without international consensus, without any clear strategy for what comes next. We are told the targets were military. We are told this was Ƶmeasured.Ƶ We are told, again, to trust the judgment of a man whose judgment has failed time and again.
Tulsi Gabbard, TrumpƵs intelligence director, testified to Congress that Iran was not developing a nuclear weapon. Trump said intelligence was wrong and isolated her from all meetings. He totally ignored his own intelligence.
But this time is different in one profound way: George W. Bush, for all his flaws, was not psychologically unstable. Trump, according to respected mental health professionals, exhibits signs of narcissism, sociopathy, and delusional thinking. He has been found liable for sexual assault, accused by dozens of women, and praised some of the worldƵs most brutal dictators. He does not absorb complex information. He does not reflect. He reacts.
And now, he has launched an act of war.
The strike on Iran was not simply a military move. It was a psychological impulse acted out on the world stage. It was personal, performative, and dangerous. He was not thinking about regional consequences, diplomatic backlash, or the lives that hang in the balance. He was thinking about his image. About power. About dominating the news cycle.
Just like Bush, Trump framed the attack as a defensive action. Just like Bush, he spoke of ƵprecisionƵ and Ƶresolve.Ƶ But what comes next? Iran will not stay silent. Retaliation is coming. Already, there are threats against U.S. forces, allies, oil shipments, and embassies. The region is on fire, and Trump has added fuel.
Yet Trump does not see the people who die. He sees television ratings. He sees a legacy written in force. He imagines himself as a decisive wartime president, when in fact he is a man playing dress-up with real weapons.
This latest attack must be seen in context, not just geopolitical, but psychological. Trump has long admired authoritarian rulers: Vladimir Putin, who jails critics and poisons opposition; Kim Jong-un, who rules through fear and execution; Xi Jinping, who controls a surveillance state; Viktor Orbán, who openly undermines democracy. These are not just allies of convenience; they are his role models.
He does not admire their nations. He admires their unchecked power.
Trump sees in these dictators what he craves: the ability to act without consequence, to punish without trial, to be adored without question. His bombing of Iran is not about securing peace. It is about asserting dominance. Like a strongman. Like the men he studies and emulates.
But this is not some isolated decision. It is the logical extension of a presidency built on spectacle, vengeance, and the erosion of democratic norms. A man who has faced dozens of criminal charges, enraged by press coverage, backed into political corners, will lash out. And now, he has.
The tragedy is that we have been here before. The Iraq War cost over 4,500 American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, trillions of dollars, and our credibility on the world stage. The invasion created ISIS, fueled extremism, and destabilized the region for generations.
And what did we learn? Apparently nothing.
We elected another man who sells war as strength, who weaponizes fear, who dismisses diplomacy as weakness. Only this time, the man is more reckless, more unstable, more isolated from reality.
And he is still cheered.
Millions still chant his name. They see the bombing not as a warning, but as a triumph. They see strength, not danger. But they are wrong. What we are witnessing is not leadership. It is compulsion. It is ego. It is a man with the temperament of a wounded child, the judgment of a television host, and the power of a nuclear arsenal.
We are already hearing echoes of Iraq: that Iran is plotting, that force is the only option, that we must act before they do. The drums of war are beating again and this time, the drummer is mad.
We must stop pretending this is normal. We must stop justifying these decisions as strategic. They are not. They are impulsive, theatrical, and disastrous. The world needed a statesman. Instead, it got a showman with a short fuse and a long list of grudges.
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