The Rude Pundit: The Only Way to Talk About the Iran War Is to Say the US Needs to Stop

[babylonsister]

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-only-way-to-talk-about-iran-war-is.html

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
3/15/2026
The Only Way to Talk About the Iran War Is to Say the US Needs to Stop


Over in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the always smart Will Bunch has a column out this week that warns that our current Iran clusterfuck is already reminiscent of our Vietnam clusterfuck and is already a lost cause: "We should still take one lesson from Vietnam. We should face the honest, painful truth. It took America 20 tortured years, an unspeakable death toll, and finally the image of desperate people climbing toward helicopters on an embassy roof to acknowledge the bitter reality that our nation had lost a war. Today, it’s clear after less than two weeks there won’t even be a premature 'Mission Accomplished' banner for Trump’s and Benjamin Netanyahu’s irrational gambit in Iran. Victory is unattainable, and arguably we have lost a war." It's a harsh acknowledgement, something anyone without their head stuck up the asses of Fox "news" bullshitters and craven right-wing podcasters already sensed from the frantic spinning of this colossal fuckup by Trump and his administration spokesworms.

snip//

Some Democrats, like AOC and Sen. Chris Murphy, are being crystal clear on the need to bring the troops home and stop attacking Iran. One high point of stupidity here was when Murphy was talking to CNN's Jake "Resting sneer face" Tapper. Last Sunday, Tapper asked Murphy about voting against an expected $50 billion in funding for the war. Murphy said he wouldn't support it, and Tapper said that might be seen as "voting against the troops." To his credit, Murphy didn't bite on the old canard that not supporting the killing of troops for maniacal reasons is the same as not supporting the troops. He said, "If you support the troops, then you should vote against this war so that we get our troops out of harm’s way. Virtually nothing good happened from sending thousands of Americans to die in Iraq in the 2000s and if we don’t learn that lesson then shame on every single one of us."

See, we don't have to go all the way back to Vietnam for the lesson, although it was a much, much bloodier one for the US. We were just fucking here, in a quagmire, pretending like we knew what we were doing, with leaders who thought it would be a cakewalk and learning too late that those who counseled caution were right. We were just fucking here 15 years ago. I know memories are short and attention spans are fading, but, fucking hell, our media and our Democratic leaders need to be clear that this is an insultingly worthless waste of lives (American and Iranian and Lebanese and...), of money, and it's going to fuck things up for another generation.

But, hell, it'll give Democrats something else to run on. And with FCC dickscab Brendan Carr threatening the licenses of broadcasters who speak ill of the war, maybe it's time to tell this administration to go fuck itself with its threats. Hell, it's not like they've gamed out the consequences of any of their actions. And opposing a war is more patriotic than being a simp for it.

(I just wanna add one thing: I'm pushing 60 years on this goddamned planet. There has not been a single fucking war or military intervention in my lifetime that wasn't based on lies or exaggerated bullshit. Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again, and now Iran, none of them were worth a single life. None of them were about protecting the United States or defending an ally who was attacked. It's pathetic that we keep doing this. It's pathetic that people still support leaders who do this.)