This is an issue that most people just don’t think about much.  When they do think about it, it isn’t deep.

Unfortunately, many Americans view war as something of a video game.  More people are starting to understand that there is a cost to war, but they tend not to oppose war on purely moral grounds.

With the U.S. and Israeli governments starting a war with Iran (not just in Iran), there have been at least 6 U.S. soldiers who have died.  This gets a lot of attention.  Part of it is that it hits close to home.

If there is an event that kills 10 people in your city, it is going to get a lot of attention, and rightly so.  If a similar event happened in Thailand or Nigeria, you probably wouldn’t hear anything about it.  And to be sure, there is nothing wrong with that.

But when it is our own government initiating violence, every death counts.  They are making a big deal about the release of the names of the 6 U.S. soldiers.  Maybe the news should read off the names of all of the little girls who were murdered in Iran.

Pacifism and Non-Aggression

I am not a pacifist.  I believe in non-aggression.  I don’t think people should initiate violence.  It gets more complicated if someone steals property without using actual violence.

I believe that people have a right to defend themselves, including the use of violence.  If an innocent person is being attacked, then that person is justified in using violence to repel the attacker.

I believe that the use of violence really should be the last resort.  Even in the case of theft (which can be argued is violence, in a sense), there are oftentimes remedies that don’t require violence.

If someone has stolen money and refuses to give it back, there are ways that society can impose penalties and even provide some restitution for the victim.  The bank can take the thief’s assets.  The grocery store can prevent the thief from shopping there.  And if the thief is harmed by someone else, maybe he doesn’t get justice either.

Still, I am not necessarily against the use of some force in cases of theft.  Theft in itself is aggression.

War and Non-Aggression

The problem comes with war.  By nature, war is aggressive, even if responding to an attack.

Iran is demonstrating this dilemma now.  The U.S. and Israeli states are guilty of murder and war crimes.  It is completely inexcusable to attack another country that was not aggressing against others (in spite of media lies).  The only people who could lay claim to being aggressed against by the Iranian government is the Iranian people.

The moral question I have is in the response.  Iran has been firing hundreds of missiles into Israel and surrounding countries that have U.S. military bases.  It seems justified to fire missiles into military bases, but even here, there is not perfect accuracy.  Plus, when some of those missiles get shot down, they can fall on innocent parties.

The people living in or visiting the U.A.E. or Qatar don’t deserve to die.  Even the people living in Israel don’t deserve to die unless they were part of the specific group committing aggression.

This is the problem with war.  You can’t just defend yourself against the aggressors.  When you try to defend yourself, you are also going to kill innocent people in most cases.

This is an issue I struggle with.  If I were in Iran, I would probably be telling my government to fire missiles to cause pain to other people.  Even if you can’t kill the monster, you can give him a bloody nose.

The only other choice for Iranian officials was to literally do nothing and take it.  This just emboldens the “leaders” in the U.S. and Israel, and Israel would probably take over Iran, just as they are trying to take over parts of Lebanon right now.

There is an argument to be made that there would be even more death and destruction if Iran did nothing. Sometimes the bully needs to be punched back.  The problem is that punching back in this case means killing innocent people.

So, I don’t know if Iranian officials are “justified” in doing this.  It is certainly understandable what they are doing.  When you corner a wounded animal, they will eventually fight back even if they are the weaker one.

What I do know is that the U.S. and Israeli officials who initiated this war are murderers.  There was no legitimate justification to attack the people of Iran.

Donald Trump made the decision to strike Iran.  Sure, he does whatever Benjamin Netanyahu tells him to do, but he doesn’t have to.  That is his decision.  It is also Trump’s decision to cozy up to the likes of Mark Levin and Lindsey Graham and follow them over a cliff by enacting their war hawk agenda.

These people were never-Trumpers at one time because they didn’t like how Trump said that Bush lied us into war with Iraq.  They didn’t like Trump because he talked about trying to bring peace and putting America First.

Well, it turns out Trump was a complete liar when he talked about peace.  These neoconservatives also realized that all they have to do is constantly butter up Trump.  Just tell him how great he is and how much more wonderful he will be if he drops bombs on other countries.  It has worked brilliantly from their perspective.

Trump, the supposed peace candidate, is now doing the bidding of Netanyahu and the war hawks.  All they had to do was play on his ego and extreme narcissism.

No More Excuses

There are always excuses for Trump floating around.

• He had to do this so that he can achieve important policies in other areas.
• He is playing 4D chess.
• He is doing this to expose the deep state.
• He is doing this because the establishment is blackmailing him.
• He is better than Kamala would have been.

I have never been one for making excuses for politicians, although I was probably mildly guilty of excusing Trump at times.  If Trump bragged about how this is the greatest economy ever, I just chalked it up to Trump exaggerating and being over the top.

In 2015, when Trump came on the political scene, I didn’t like him much from a political standpoint.  Many years before that, he advocated for a wealth tax on rich people.  I recognized early on that he was a bit of socialist.

When I saw how much the establishment hated his guts in 2015 and 2016, I grew a bit of a soft spot for Trump, in spite of his many flaws.  Even though I didn’t vote for him in 2016, I was kind of cheering for him.  He seemed to change a good chunk of the Republican Party from just 4 or 8 years before when most of the major players were still defending Bush and the Iraq War.

I never place much hope in politicians in general, and it wasn’t much different here.  Still, even in 2024 leading up to the election, Trump seemed to have a bunch of decent people rallying around him.  This included Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr., Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Tucker Carlson.  If ever there was a chance for peace, however small, this seemed to be it.

So, I very hesitatingly voted for Trump in 2024, even though I knew he had many flaws.  I knew his tariffs would be a disaster, and I also knew that he wasn’t exactly a non-interventionist on foreign policy.  But he at least seemed to be less interventionist, and maybe there really would be a chance for greater peace.

It was not to be.  I already saw the major warning signs and shift in his administration in March 2025.  It has been all downhill from there, and there are no excuses left to make for the man.

Trump is a War Criminal

The Epstein files have made a lot of news lately, and rightly so.  They read like a novel.  Someone could have written a book about this stuff 10 years ago and people would have said it was too unrealistic.

Some people will say that other items in the news are a distraction from the Epstein files.  Some people will say that the Epstein files are a distraction from other things (aside from Pam Bondi saying that we should be talking about the Dow hitting 50,000).

I think the Epstein files are very important for multiple reasons.  On a broader scale, they show the blackmail that was taking place.  They also show just how sick some human beings can be, including people in positions of high status and power.

While the Epstein files are very important, there is a lot of speculation within them.  We are left wondering what is true and what’s not true in many cases.

There are other things where we don’t need to speculate.  In fact, Trump and others openly brag about them.

The Trump administration was blowing up boats off the coast of Venezuela.  There was no proof that these people were smuggling drugs, even though that still wouldn’t justify killing them.  Trump was ordering the murder of these people.  Some of them were probably just boaters or fishermen.

Trump has bombed 7 countries in his first year back in office.  Now he has restarted a war with Iran, which has already killed many people just in the first two days.

I wonder if Trump slept well last night knowing that he is directly responsible for the murder of many innocent people, including many children.  Trump has blood on his hands.  He is a murderer.  Not only should he not be president, he should be in jail.

I don’t have to speculate on what Trump did or didn’t do with Epstein.  I already know he is a murderer and war criminal.  If he is a pedophile too, it doesn’t add much at this point.

The Iran Lies

I have watched videos of people visiting Iran from several years ago.  I saw one video where the guy was welcomed with open arms by the Iranian people.  They knew he was American.  Most of the people there don’t hate Americans.  They distinguish between the American government and the American people. Unfortunately, most Americans aren’t as good at making this distinction with foreigners.

We are getting recycled lies from the Iraq War in 2003 for Iran today.  They are the same variations of lies.

• We have to liberate the Iranian people.
• The Iranians want to bring death to America.
• We can’t let them develop nuclear weapons or they will use them against the United States.
• Iran is the number one state sponsor of terror.

Do you know who the biggest sponsors of terrorism are today?  It is the governments of the U.S. and Israel.  Just look at the blatant killing of tens of thousands of people in Gaza.  Just look at what is happening in Iran now.

Of course, the U.S. and Israel (with U.S. funding and weapons) have the capability to bring down a reign of terror.  It’s not to say it might not be as bad or worse from some other countries if they had the means to do so.  But just based on what is actually happening, it is the U.S. and Israel that are bringing the most violence to the world right now.

The U.S. is a great place to live in many ways, and the American people in general are decent people.  This is why the war hawks have to spread lies when going to war.  They depend on the good heartedness and naivety of the American people.

Most politicians selling war do not come out and say that we are attacking another country so that we can kill a whole bunch of children and dominate the world and make the weapons companies rich (although sometimes they let those last parts slip out).  They sell war by appealing to the goodness of the American people.  They say we need to help liberate people and bring safety to us.

If You Hate the Democrats Now…

Some MAGA people think that if you criticize Trump, then you are a Democrat.  They live in this binary world of one side or the other.

Even if you live in your own Trump world and think it is ok that he is murdering children in Iran, why would you be cheering this on?  If you hate the Democrats that much, Trump couldn’t be doing a finer job for that party right now.

The Democrats were beaten.  Biden was a complete disaster.  Many people hate him for his tyrannical COVID policies, including me.  The Democrats were exposed.  They showed that they care more about transgenders competing in women’s sports and using any bathroom of their choice than they do about the American people.  They were highly unpopular in almost every way by a majority of people.

Now Trump has handed them a gift.  Trump has worked his hardest to try to vindicate all of the leftists out there with TDS.  They said Trump would be a dictator.  They said he was a bully.  They said he would act like Hitler.  They said he would try to take over the world.  Again, Trump is trying everything in his power to prove them correct.

The Democrats are still not popular.  A majority of people can’t stand the Democrats.  But when the midterm elections come in November 2026, the Democrats are going to wipe the floor with the Republicans.  They will also be seeking revenge.

Enough people who tacitly supported Trump and the Republicans will stay home.  Most of them won’t vote Democrat, but they won’t vote Republican either.  I know, and know of, several people who voted for Trump who are disgusted with what he is doing now.

The Democrats are going to take majorities in both the House and Senate.  They will probably impeach Trump, but it is questionable whether they will have the votes to actually remove him from office.

Again, Trump should be in jail for mass murder.  He should absolutely be impeached at this point for his many crimes.  But most of the Democrats voting for his impeachment will be total hypocrites.  They wouldn’t have voted to impeach Biden for the same things.

When we fall under Democratic tyranny next, you can blame all of the Republicans and MAGA who are still supporting Trump now instead of repudiating him.

Free Will

Trump had a choice to make.  He chose the evil path instead of the good path.  Even if he is being blackmailed, he could have resigned or just taken the consequences of the blackmail.

Trump is a total disgrace.  The Democrats constantly told lies to try to hurt Trump.  You don’t need to make stuff up about Trump now.  Just listen to what he brags about.  That is enough to tell you he is evil.

Every decent person should be opposing what Trump is doing to Iran right now.