The Iran War
I believe that I can call this, “The Iran War,” and be adequately accurate in my description. This began on 28 February 2026 with the US and Israel bombing Iran, Iran retaliating, Israel bombing Lebanon, and the closing of the Hormuz Strait to commercial traffic. Here we are more than three months later and the bombings continue. This looks like a war.
How many of us are familiar with the sitcom episode of Northern Exposure (early 1990s) in which the characters Chris Stevens and Joel Fleischman argue about the differences between truth and facts, when it comes to interpreting historical events? As I recall, Joel argued that truth was constant and facts ever-changing (as more facts became known). Chris countered, No, the truth is always changing, but the facts remain the same. This seemed mostly an esoteric argument; but here we are today, truth is the slippery element in our everyday world (not simply in an historical context).
If we try to look at the facts (and slippery truths), in June 2025, the US bombed some of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Per Donald Trump’s assessment, Iran’s nuclear program had been obliterated. Then in February 2026, the US began bombing Iran again. Per Donald Trump, some of the reasons for this bombing included: taking away Iran’s capacity to make nuclear weapons, facilitating the overthrowing of the current government there, and as a humanitarian mission because of the atrocities committed against the Iranian people. The facts are clear. The truth is murkier. Even now, the reasons for bombing Iran remain unclear.
Why would Donald Trump lead the US into this conflict? Perhaps we can consider his approach to the world. Per his own words, he learned everything he needed to know in kindergarten, in the context of dealing with his world. This seems to suggest to me that he learned to take what he wanted when he wanted it (as in the bully in the classroom). While he probably did learn this in kindergarten, there are other important lessons that came after that. Donald Trump grew up in Queens in the real estate world of his father. He seemed to have learned there that brown and black people were unreliable, if not disgusting and to be feared. He also learned that everything is transactional. Add to these lessons the ones he learned (or perhaps lessons reinforced) in New Jersey. Beginning in 1991 Donald Trump’s businesses filed for bankruptcy at least six times. A peculiar (or perhaps not so) lesson learned here was one that suggests that if you make sure there are other people who have a large stake in the game (for example, a wealthy business partner or a large bank), they will eventually have to bail you out. And, the subsequent lesson is that I’m a shrewd businessman. These appear to be hallmarks of his approach to the world.
Now, how is this related to the Iran war? By several indications early in this war, Benjamin Netanyahu convinced Donald Trump the importance of going to war with Iran. We can’t (or I can’t or don’t) know what arguments Netanyahu used to convince Trump, but likely they were transactionally based (or with transactional implications). The Trump family has very large amounts of monies/interests in the Middle East and there are probably convincing arguments there to be used by Netanyahu. Netanyahu has his own reasons for this war (those that by the way appear to have subsequently diverged from Trump’s reasons because Netanyahu appears to be peeved that he’s been left out of the process). Add to this, the impossibility (for various reasons) for people around Trump to provide input that could be used in a constructive way to make reasonable decisions about this endeavor. And here we are, in a war that is based on: 1) take what I want, 2) everything is transactional, 3) a wealthy partner will bail me out. To the last point, Trump has tried to use this strategy here with European allies (if we can still call them that) to little effect (credit them) and with Middle Eastern allies (they have little recourse because they’re over the proverbial barrel). Consequently, there is no place to go for Trump and the US. Iran knows this.
Perhaps the lesson here for all of us, especially Netanyahu in this case, Trump is going to screw everyone along the way. No exceptions! To interpret this war and the direction it will take, consider this point in the context of the throughline of Trump’s life and the approach he takes with his world.
Resources
2026 Iran War, from Wikipedia