Humans Love War

The three principal American actors in the Iran standoff offer a strange portrait of power:

Trump—a real estate developer who sees diplomacy as a resort deal. To him, a “deal” means a photo op and branding rights.

Vance—an investment banker, schooled in the art of predatory capitalism. His training? Exploit weakness, extract profit, and call it strategy.

Hegseth—a television pundit turned meme warrior, more comfortable with lighting gels than policy briefings. He built a hair and makeup room in his office—a literal shrine to optics.

Across the table: Iran’s religious hardliners. They see the American side as morally bankrupt—faithless pirates chasing profit and spectacle.

Hovering above it all is Netanyahu—longtime warmonger, unrepentant manipulator. It was he who once stood before the U.S. Congress and invoked “weapons of mass destruction”—a phrase that helped ignite the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan. He used the same phrase again today.

Republicans continue to claim our national debt stems from entitlements and Social Security. But that’s a deflection. The debt comes from war—wars they started and refuse to pay for.

We are right back where we began. The difference? Trump, at least for now, is dragging his feet. That’s something. But Trump is a weather vane in a hurricane—he’ll go where the gusts push him. He likes bombs. Iran’s zealots like martyrdom. Netanyahu likes blood. And Hegseth likes pomade.

I had hoped this amateur cohort would never face a real crisis. That hope, like many before it, went unanswered. Humans love war. It gives them purpose.

Now I pray we step back from the edge.

I’m going to pot some plants in the garden.

Sometimes peace begins in the dirt.