War or excursion, people are dying | Opinion

Let's review the lies, incompetence and consequences in Mr. Trump's excursion/war.

We were told Iran's nuclear capability was obliterated in June 2025. Now we are told Iran is two weeks away from having a nuclear bomb. Mr. Trump had a "feeling" that Iran was going to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East, so the U.S. attacked first and the Israelis had nothing to do with it. No, said the figure head secretary of state Rubio, we knew the Israelis were going to attack so we really needed to attack first to keep the Iranians from retaliating with an attack against us. This is about regime change and making Iran great again, said Mr. Trump. No, said the former Fox talking head who now runs the military, it is not about regime change or nation building.

For the military, words are a life and death matter, Mr. Trump, even when they come from our pretend commander-in-chief. That military, composed of Mr. Trump's useful "losers and suckers," has performed superbly so far in accomplishing the military objectives laid out by a sane chairman of the JCS, mainly because Mr. Trump's loyalty over competence hiring and firing hasn't yet reached deep into the operational and tactical levels of our military and hopefully never does or we will be left completely defenseless as a nation. It has not been for lack of trying with Mr. Trump's political rallies on military bases.

At the political/strategic level, this country has both an incompetent president and Cabinet fronted by an overcompensating reformed drunk and skirt-chaser as secretary of Defense, who now fancies himself as Archangel Michael. The chairman of the JCS seems to be the only bright light in this gang of dim bulbs.

The president, our political P.T. Barnum, is barnstorming around the country telling his lobotomized MAGA faithful that the war was won in the first hour and prices are coming down while prices rise and bombs rain down on U.S. troops in the war/excursion zone. His latest "a sucker is born every minute" carnival bark to MAGA is that high gas prices are actually good for the United States since we have more oil than anyone else and it will make us all rich. It is yet another attempt to be the hero to rescue himself from a worsening economic situation he created.

Slathered atop this madness, Mr. Trump, our own Manchurian candidate, has conveniently loosened the economic sanctions on dictatorial Russia, an avowed enemy of the United States, allowing them to fatten their coffers in their war of aggression against a U.S. ally, a democratic Ukraine. Ukraine, still suffering the consequences of rebuffing Mr. Trump's request to provide him with "dirt" against his political opponent, Joe Biden, in the 2020 election, has graciously offered to provide their expertise to the U.S. to combat Iranian drones (used by Russia against Ukraine) at the same time Russia is providing the Iranians with targeting intelligence to kill U.S. military personnel and destroy U.S. military facilities in the Middle East.  Mr. Trump turned Ukraine down.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump's real estate shadow secretary of State tells us he believes the former KGB agent and now president of Russia over our intelligence agencies when Mr. Putin says, no, Russia is not aiding its client state Iran in the war against its arch enemy the United States. Does the word treasonous come to anyone else's mind?

War is unpredictable, Mr. Trump. An excursion is what a tourist takes from a cruise ship and is more predictable to the nth degree than a war. Mr. Trump does not know the difference and needs to go before any more of this country's greatest treasures lose their lives because he and his lobotomized followers have taken us on an excursion that turned into a war, or is it a war that turned into an excursion? With Mr. Trump, it depends on the minute of the hour and to whom he is talking.

One thing is for sure, the hour of the mid-term elections is fast approaching and with it will come a political reckoning for the MAGA king and for all those who have aided and abetted in this dangerous reality show being put on by Mr. Trump and MAGA.  All signs say this nation cannot wait.

A retired colonel with the United States Marine Corps, Thomas Minor is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Naval War College with a master's degree in national security and strategic studies. He spent 30 years as a Marine infantry officer with the last assignment as head of the Department of Naval Science and instructor of leadership and ethics at the Virginia Military Institute. He is a resident of Bonita Springs.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: War or excursion, people are dying | Opinion