Let me get this straight: Iran and Iraq were already at war throughout the 1980s, going back to say, the battle of Uruk
In 3,500BCE.
They were at war with each other. They were bleeding each other dry. Every week, a new trench, a new airstrike, a fresh round of body bags—and guess what?
The United States didn’t have to do a damn thing.
We didn’t have to blow anyone up.
We didn’t have to spend trillions.
We didn’t have to kill civilians or become the villain in the Middle East.
Iraq and Iran were handling the destruction just fine on their own.
But then… we decided to join the party—and not as spectators.
In 2003, George W. Bush squinted at Iraq—already exhausted from a decade of fighting and sanctions—and said:
“You know what? Let’s invade them ourselves. Freedom isn’t going to bomb itself.”
Cue the fireworks. Cue the $8 trillion dollar tab (yes, trillion)—most of it borrowed, which means we’ll be paying it off until your kids’ student loans go to collections.
Cue hundreds of thousands dead, including up to 1 million Iraqis, depending on which humanitarian nightmare you reference.
Cue a destabilized region, global protests, and the birth of more insurgent groups than a Call of Duty expansion pack. Cue Abu Ghraib. Cue the torture.
Cost of the war? Try this:
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar
And now? The sequel nobody asked for: Trump vs. Iran.
Donald Trump, who campaigned on getting us out of “stupid wars”, has now taken the next step in the trilogy.
He’s greenlit strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, using bunker-busters and cruise missiles like it’s a President’s Day sale at Raytheon.
Here’s the Reuters breakdown:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/strikes-iran-mark-trumps-biggest-riskiest-foreign-policy-gamble-2025-06-22/
And here’s how the Washington Post puts it:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/06/22/trump-iran-bomb-consequences/
This, of course, follows the time-tested Neo-Conservative doctrine of:
“Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.” (Bush Jr quote).
The Final Twist?
All we had to do was… nothing.
Literally. Do. Nothing.
Let Iran and Iraq keep at each other. Let them bomb each other into mutual exhaustion. It was the rare geopolitical gift: two bitter rivals, locked in a self-contained, mutually destructive war—and we were getting it for free.
But no. We looked at that and said:
“You know what would make this better? If we joined in… forever.”
Because why win by standing still, when you can lose big by jumping into someone else’s disaster with both feet, trillions of dollars, and your moral credibility on fire?
Welcome to MAGA foreign policy. We don’t learn, but we sure do pay.
= new reply since forum marked as read
