The notion of threatening a country with “D-Day” economic sanctions after you claimed to have completely “annihilated” them by depleting most of what was your previously robust stockpile of military ordnance seems more than a bit hyperbolic. It also appears desperately toothless. Especially if you are the floundering Trump regime at war with your creation: an emboldened Iran. 

Wiggling and thrashing in quicksand is not a good plan for extracting yourself from its grip. Really, U.S. economic sanctions? For more than 50 years, the U.S. has been sanctioning Iran for its actions against the United States, the Iranian people and much of the world, and yet the radical Iranian mullahs, with the help of their international partners, have managed to work around those restrictions and never once have they lost their hold on Iranian state power. How would this time be any different? 

As I see it, the U.S. has but a few options:

Collect all the potatoes in Idaho and much of the remaining coal in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and either drop the mix on Iran (utter annihilation), or offer it to Iran for settlement.

Walk the hell away (withdraw) and don’t look back.

Learn from history; yet again, sit tight in another seemingly endless foreign war for at least two more years, at which time much of the public may have lost interest or forgotten the details of this administration’s continuing blunders. By then, a new president will withdraw the troops and likely take the heat for the copious misdeeds of those now in office. 

Oh, and in 2028, give out the required number of, “get out of jail free” cards (presidential pardons) to those who have proved themselves to be the uniquely unqualified leaders of this disgraceful debacle.

War is the ultimate “no joke.” But when ill-prepared incompetents are in charge, you get our current dark reality. For the sake of the troops, let’s hope for a quick cessation of all hostilities and a real peace in the near future. However, like Iran, America still needs its own “regime change,” with new leaders who can pivot to a more enlightened and humane approach, domestically and to the rest of the world. We need a government that can act with the necessary respect for others, and thus earn the mutual respect of friend and foe alike. And please, never again should we empower a dangerous, know-nothing grifter as commander-in-chief of these United States.

Elections have consequences. Who knew?

John Pace lives in Honesdale, PA, and writes the Substack John in the Woods.