The Trump regime has made no secret of its plans to pull back from global influence and settle for regional power by dominating every other nation in the Western Hemisphere. Once we build up our stockpile of munitions again, we should be able to bomb any single country in the region for up to two weeks to make sure that the surviving population is good and fired up in the event that we have to put boots on the ground to prove that we mean business.
That's right: no more sending our young people to die in jungles in Asia when we have perfectly good jungles you can practically drive to (except for that pesky Darien Gap).
Back in the mid twentieth century we could still intimidate smaller nations with the threat that we would invade them. Then Vietnam knocked some of the shine off of that idea, but we still swung a big dick militarily. However, since the revenge campaigns following 9-11, in Afghanistan and Iraq, were the opposite of quick and decisive, smaller nations probably see more inspiration in the successful resistance of Ukraine, and the ultimate victory of Hanoi when the USA starts rattling its saber. It's one thing to run a quick snatch like the Trump regime did in Venezuela. Meanwhile, in Iran, we keep wisely holding off on an actual invasion because even the blowhards running this fecal festival don't want to be saddled with the bloodbath that would ensue.
The military intimidation machine still functioned through the end of Joe Biden's presidency. One key factor is that it was just one element of a detailed foreign policy that used a lot of soft power as well. If we were ever going to wean ourselves off of our worst meddlesome ways in foreign affairs, at least we could do it from a position of strength.
That's gone now.
When the cosplay government we have now started throwing weapons around like the supply was endless, it quickly revealed the limitations of our military capability and the ignorance of our civilian leadership at this unfortunate moment. Like any armed, angry drunk, we are dangerous to be around, but, like that drunk, nowhere near as capable as we think we are. I say we because all of this truculent buffoonery is being done in our name, under the flag of our nation. Anyone who voted for this should be deeply ashamed.
I don't know where the personnel will come from to handle multiple invasions in South America even if we weren't stuck in the tar pit of Iran. I'm sure that the Trump regime remembered the song lyric, "We'll kick your ass, and take the gas, and say ayatollah-ya so!" How's that going, now that they've buggered the global distribution of petroleum? Maybe they just quietly slink away from Iran and hope that the whole thing simmers down on its own.
The tough guys starting these fights are not the ones who will take the actual return fire. Our military is legally required to refuse unlawful orders, but they have no such mechanism for refusing blatantly stupid ones. Sometimes military and civilian leadership spin each other up, as happened in Vietnam, but the institutions also learned from their mistakes. Maybe it didn't improve their ethics as much as we might like, but at least it improved their methods.
Movies and television almost never depict reality accurately. I know enough from seeing how script writers butcher what I do know about, and from listening to knowledgeable people critique depictions of activities I don't know about, to deduce that most of what we see is horseshit. It can be a tightly written narrative with enough internal consistency to carry a viewer along for a fun ride, but it isn't going to teach you how to do in real life what you're seeing on the screen. And that's if it was possible at all. Unfortunately, the United States is under the control of television characters who really don't have the faintest idea how to perform the real world duties of the offices they have been given. Rather than straighten the bozos out, the Republican elected officials who were already in government for years before Trump and MAGA fell on them like a planeload of manure have settled into poorly scripted supporting roles. Some of them were already that dumb. Others are just going along to get along, probably hoping that they cling to their seats after the Democratic Party finally comes to their rescue.
If nothing else, the past decade has shown us that we all needed to be thinking in a lot more detail about the nuts and bolts of how we want this country to run. We're all very busy trying to live our daily lives, so we succumb to the ad blitz every couple of years and choose which fears to indulge, before tuning out again. The MAGA cult runs on fear and resentment. I should also add convenience shopping. Elect one strong leader who will make life hell for the enemies of freedom both foreign and domestic. Quick as a well-placed head shot at the satisfying climax of a movie or television show. Down go the bad guys, and the hero gets the girl.
