DEMOCRATIC CITIES ARE TRUMP'S GRENADA

I'd like to say a quick word about Jonathan V. Last's Bulwark piece titled "The 'Department of War' Is Designed to Fight American Citizens." In the piece, Last responds to Pete Hegseth's decision to summon the top officers of the U.S. military and give them a lecture about how tough and macho and politcally incorrect our miltary needs to be, after which President Trump talked about using the military on American cities. Last asks:

But how are we supposed to square all of this look-how-hard-I-am talk with MAGA’s other insistence that America should not get involved with wars?

... The goal of America First is to never deploy the military in combat any closer or more protracted than remotely blowing up a couple Venezuelan boats or dropping bunker busters on Iranian mountains.

In the America First view of foreign policy, we should never put our lethal warriors on the ground, where they have to directly engage hostiles with the ability to return fire. Doing so would represent a failure of leadership.

So why does Secretary Hegseth demand a million-member standing army of merciless, ultra-hard, physically fit warriors if President Trump is committed to never getting entangled in foreign wars?

Last concludes that the "ultra-hard" force is meant for war against U.S. citizens who oppose Trump and his party, which is obviously correct, and obviously a heating up of the GOP's long-standing cold war against the party's domestic enemies. I've been telling you for at least twenty years that Republicans hate us more than they hate any foreign foe. They don't think we're real Americans. Their trusted media sources have said for decades that we're undeserving of full citizenship, that we hate America, that we cheat in elections and then use electoral victories as an opportunity to undermine and weaken the country, because that's our prime objective.

So, sure, Trump wants a war on us. But notice something else Last says here. I'll repeat it:

The goal of America First is to never deploy the military in combat any closer or more protracted than remotely blowing up a couple Venezuelan boats or dropping bunker busters on Iranian mountains.

In the America First view of foreign policy, we should never put our lethal warriors on the ground, where they have to directly engage hostiles with the ability to return fire.

That's not "America First" -- that's Trump wanting to avoid a fight that might be prolonged and difficult. That's Trump not wanting the U.S. military to fight in a way that might draw a significant amount of return fire.

(Trump is hardly the first American president to prefer combat against an overmatched opponent. I'm old enough to remember Ronald Reagan's glorious victory over the timy island nation of Grenada in 1983.)

Trump only wants military moments that he can portray as quick victories. He thinks prolonged fighting would make him look weak -- which, because his long-deceased abusive father still lives rent-free in his head, is, in his view, the worst thing a human being can be.

But in addition, Trump is a coward -- not just a Vietnam-era draft dodger, but a pathetic human being who, by his own admission, flees the sight of blood. Remember this July 2008 clip from a Trump appearance on Howard Stern's show?


Trump said:

I was at Mar-a-Lago and we had this incredible ball, the Red Cross Ball.... You have all these really rich people, and a man, about 80 years old—very wealthy man, a lot of people didn’t like him—he fell off the stage.

... This guy falls off right on his face, hits his head, and I thought he died. And you know what I did? I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t, you know, he was right in front of me and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him....

Marines attending the ball helped the man. Trump didn't. He ran from the blood.

TRUMP: ... They grabbed him, they put the blood all over the place, it's all over their uniforms, they're swipe-- They ran him out! I never saw it. They ran like--

STERN: You would never do that.

TRUMP: I would say, "Get that blood cleaned up! It's disgusting!"

That's Trump -- afraid of blood, just the way he's afraid of a military encounter that might involve the other side firing back.

Now, what do L.A., D.C., Chicago, Memphis, and other cities have in common with Venezuelan boats? They're overmatched enemies. Cities don't have standing armies. Cities don't have armed anti-Trump militias. Cities have police forces, but Trump knows they won't fire on his troops.

Trump wants to fight cities because he and other Republicans hate cities, but Trump also wants to fight cities because it's not a fair fight.

I assume that both Trump and Hegseth were abused by their fathers in childhood. In some people, that might lead to empathy for victims, but Trump and Hegseth seem to want to replicate not only the violence they experienced but the power imbalance. Think about school bullies. Why do they think picking on the small, weak, awkward kids makes them look cool? Why do they think ganging up on their targets makes them look cool?

I don't know the answers, but that's how bullies are. That's how Trump and Hegseth are. Trump, in particular, wants this unfair fight against civilian populations. That's what makes him feel like a man.