How Republicans keep screwing up their wars

Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.

The Trump administration’s war on Iran has been a mess. 

Even before bombs started to fall, President Donald Trump treated it more like a teaser for a season finale of “The Apprentice” than a major military operation that would cost lives and set off a wave of global chaos.

Things devolved quickly once the war began. 

In his first address to the nation, Trump failed to answer the question on the minds of hundreds of millions of people domestically and abroad: Why is this happening?

The situation got worse in the next few days. 

The administration offered up a shifting series of justifications as Trump called reporter after reporter from outlets he’s routinely called “fake news” in an attempt to promote his propaganda.

Things were soon compounded by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who whined to the media for publishing reports of dead U.S. soldiers instead of touting how great Trump is doing.

This is no way to go about what is arguably the most serious enterprise a government can engage in: war. And it’s certainly a far cry from the GOP under former President George W. Bush and his launch of the Iraq War in March 2003.

To be sure, the underlying reasons offered up for that war were 100% false. There were no connections between the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. There were also no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq either. It was all a lie.

But the Bush team oriented its propaganda around the systemic repetition of some sort of argument for war. Bush didn’t just wake up one day and launch the war; his administration instead used the 9/11 attack to lay the groundwork.

In 2005, Bush inadvertently explained this process during a discussion about Social Security.

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda,” he said.

That led to events like then-Vice President Dick Cheney discussing on “Meet the Press” the purported use of aluminum tubes by Iraq to “enrich uranium,” enlisting the aid of the British government to hype an intelligence dossier, giving access to The New York Times so reporter Judith Miller would write a front page story falsely alleging that Hussein “sought a-bomb parts.”

The Bush administration even sought cover from the United Nations for the war it started regardless of the facts, resulting in Secretary of State Colin Powell dramatically testifying that the United States had reached “conclusions based on solid intelligence.”

But it was all a lie. 

The war killed thousands of Americans and Iraqis, destabilized the Middle East, and created a global fallout that is still being felt today.

But unlike Trump, Bush felt compelled to try to get Americans to support his war.

Trump became the leader of the GOP under far different circumstances. He transitioned from serial failed business owner and reality TV host by becoming a pundit on Fox News, spreading racist birther conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama.

Existing in a right-wing ecosphere that sustains itself, Trump has had enormous political success without having to develop the need to speak to a mass audience. Instead, he has risen to power on a wave of bigotry. And his MAGA supporters treat him like a deity, so he doesn’t have Bush’s need to sell.

Even worse, Trump faces an even more hospitable media environment in his second term than he did a decade ago. While the mainstream media was never openly hostile toward or critical of Trump, it is now firmly in his corner—from figures like Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to the Ellison family’s growing media empire, which includes CBS News and soon CNN.

You don’t have to sell war if the press is already in your pocket.

The only upside is that, despite all of these factors in Trump’s favor, his war spin isn’t working. In poll after poll, the public has opposed bombing Iran. Even some Republicans have voiced objections, going along with most Democratic and independent voters.

Wars like Iraq have historically had a rallying effect on the public, as Americans naturally seek unity when lives are on the line. But Trump has built a cohort of followers that is closed off from the rest of the nation, which—combined with his massive ego—is a toxic brew.

Trump has had political victories, but they’ve reinforced his worst impulses as a leader. Instead of the competent malfeasance under Bush, Trump is nothing more than a sloppy mess.

And the world will suffer because of it.

rss@dailykos.com (Oliver Willis)مصدر