The Mort Report: Hogs of war

TUCSON — ICE terrorizes parts of America. Ice paralyzes much of the rest. Polls turn against a corrupt, climate-denying autocrat who sees the White House as his Versailles Palace and runs roughshod across the globe jabbing big sticks into hornets’ nests.

Reporters close in on Donald Trump’s starring role in shielded Epstein files. They include FBI interview notes with a woman who maintains that when she was in her early teens, he forced her to have oral sex, then slugged her when she bit his penis.

And so now, flushed with hubris after a quick abduction in Venezuela, Trump attempts a wag-the-dog war with the country that fought Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to a standstill in the 1980s after eight years of artillery fire and human waves shouting, “Allahu Akbar.”

At least a half million combatants and civilians died, likely many more.

This report will be brief. No one can predict the future. But after covering conflicts of every sort since the 1960s, my scalp tingled when Trump said the attack would last several days, if not weeks.

My guess is years, if not decades, if you factor in the fallout. Iran’s supreme leader, at 87, is more interested in martyrdom than capitulation to the Great Satan. Proxy guerrilla groups on Israel’s borders are weakened but still active. Remember the Houthis.

Iran’s navy and shore batteries immediately blocked the Straits of Hormuz, throttling global oil supplies. They can bedevil shipping across the Middle East. Israel likely faces extended retaliation. Iranian operatives can bring terror attacks to the heart of America.

Trump declared: “You must lay down your weapons. Or, in the alternative, face certain death.”

Perhaps he is the genius “peace through strength” statesman he claims to be. In this case, I hope he is right. But I think he is insane.

Iran is the size of Alaska.Its 93 million inhabitants, largely workaday families, along with brilliant scholars and skilled professionals eager to be part of the wider world. It is Ancient Persia with wondrous architectural splendors now at risk.

Iranians are Shi’a Muslims, whose spiritual beliefs pervade all aspects of life. Many want freedom from oppressive mullahs, but few have illusions about a likely outcome. Revolutionary Guards have the guns. They recently killed protesters by the thousands.

Air strikes and warships seldom win wars. They mostly intensify hatreds as civilian casualties pile up. Forced, violent “regime change” almost never ends well.

If this were a genuine coalition of Western forces, with a reasoned strategy and specific tactics designed to exert pressure in stages, military action might have a chance.

But by now Iranians know Trump’s territorial ambitions and the financial motives of the billionaire hogs of war who keep him in power. Ancient societies tend to unite against saviors with a shopping list.

The tragic irony isthat Trump scrapped the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the JCPOA, which Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton put together in 2015. With his habitual superlatives, he called it the worst deal in history.

The accord was reached with the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany. In exchange for onsite inspectors to monitor limits on Iran’s nuclear program, it lifted sanctions by the United Nations and Western allies.

It also restored blocked funds that would allow Iran to restore a crippled economy. Instead, Trump chose bombast and military provocations. Israel vehemently opposed the deal. When it was rejected, Israeli airstrikes and sabotage amped up hostilities.

My own view that Trump chose a dramatic distraction because of the Epstein scandals is only surmise, but it seems blindingly obvious.

He defined himself in 2015 when he declared his candidacy by slurring Mexicans as murderous rapists and Muslims as extremists who threaten America. Later in the Access Hollywood tape, he boasted about grabbing women by their genitals.

Despite a law he signed requiring transparency in the Epstein files, reporters are closing in on what Attorney General Pam Bondi refuses to make public.

Democratic congressmen insist on compliance with the law. Three million released documents are heavily and selectively redacted. At least two million more remain secret. Bondi says the case is closed. It is time to move on.

Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s Goldilocks Goebbels press secretary, insists that the president is totally exonerated of any wrongdoing. She says Democrats’ efforts to establish truth about multiple allegations and blacked out names are only political posturing.

November elections depend on how many Americans see reality as it is and then stand up to speak power to untruth. Despite so many failings of the nation’s news media, hard facts are clear to anyone who takes the trouble to find them.

I had just finished a Mort Report outlining why only an avalanche of ballots can stop Republicans from using voter suppression, electronic chicanery and bald lies to influence the outcome. They have five times more campaign funds than Democrats.

Whatever Americans think of Trump, most of the wider world sees a flipflopping porcine megalomaniac who says or does anything to protect his place at the trough. He is crippling global democracy while shortening the life expectancy of an entire planet.

He is only a tool whose malignant narcissism and delusions deepen with age. Uber-rich plutocrats and ideologues with all-out plunder in mind put him back in the White House because 38 percent of eligible voters did not bother to cast a ballot in 2024.

Beyond his lust for war, Trump is savaging the planet’s ecosystems.

It was 92 degrees the other day in Tucson. By summer, Colorado River dams are expected to reach dead pool, forcing a calamitous cutback in water supply and a shutdown of hydroelectric plants that power the Southwest.

Trump slashes conservation regulations to push for yet more high-tech industries, agriculture, mining and housing projects that spike demands for water and electricity. He rejects U.N. climate accords, favoring fossil fuel over renewable energy.

Lush deserts here in the foothills below Catalina Mountain peaks may soon wither, a telling microcosm on a planet that is simultaneously drying up, freezing over and facing monster storms in once-temperate places.

Affordability, the latest buzzword, is fixable with fairer taxes rather than tariffs.Sustainability is about whether Earth can support our wasteful, heedless species.

For now, the focus is on Iran.At this early stage, my only conclusion is the waffling finish old-time reporters laugh about: The future lies ahead. I fervently wish it will be better than today’s news suggests it may be.

America’s founding principles shaped a law-bound nation, which today should be steering an imperiled world toward collective action against global crises. Instead, democracy hangs in the balance. Voters face a simple choice: Use it or lose it.

The Mort Report is a voluntary endeavor by a lifelong correspondent and friends to help connect the dots in an imperiled world. Neither a blog nor advocacy, it is firsthand reportage and fact-based analysis. If you’d like to subscribe or contribute to help with reporting and production expenses (thank you), please email emailmort.rosenblum@gmail.com. This article is republished with permission.