President Donald Trump has dragged America into a war of his choosing, attacking Iran with little public support, zero congressional approval and virtually no public justification. The path forward is unclear, and our self-absorbed leader is already speaking about the loss of American lives with the nonchalance one expects from a small man never held accountable for the consequences of his actions.

Announcing the deaths of four U.S. service members following the attack launched Feb. 28, Trump said in a video posted to social media: “And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends, that’s the way it is. Likely be more.”

The ease with which that man dismissed present and future casualties was sickening. “That’s the way it is,” he said. He might as well have added a “Ho-hum,” such is his apparent concern for the women and men he has now put in danger for … what?

Iran posed no imminent threat, but Trump attacked anyway

Our intelligence agencies identified no imminent threat from Iran. There was no sign that the nation was close to developing a nuclear weapon. The White House still has on its website a June statement regarding Trump’s bombing of Iran, carrying the headline: “Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated ‒ and Suggestions Otherwise are Fake News.”

Are we supposed to trust the word of an administration that lies so sloppily? That can’t even keep its propaganda straight?

What is the reason for this swift attack, conducted in conjunction with Israel? Why was a case not presented to the American people before their sons and daughters were dispatched, again, to a region of endless wars? Why was Congress not asked to declare war, as the Constitution requires?

We don’t have answers to any of those questions. And those who pay attention know full well that even if answers were coming from Trump or administration officials, their words couldn’t be trusted. These people lie as easily as they breathe.

A deadly war launched from Trump's gilded South Florida gold resort

Trump was so flippant about this attack that he oversaw its launch from his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida, apparently deeming his presence in Washington, DC, unnecessary. He took time away from battle planning to glad-hand with rich friends gathered for a fundraiser in a gilded ballroom, a scene that shows precisely who our president values and who he’s willing to ship off to spill blood on foreign soil.

Americans are worried about the cost of food and health insurance. They’re worried about energy prices and rent.

What they saw this weekend was a president green-lighting a war that will cost billions, a war that will likely spike energy prices, from the palatial comfort of his glitzy South Florida home.

Is a war with Iran necessary, or is Trump trying to distract us?

What they saw was a convicted felon, a man who has been found liable for sexual abuse, a man who is a billionaire living the highest of high lives ‒ deciding on his own that American troops would enter another Middle East war. 

What they saw was Trump, a wildly unpopular president, a man working overtime to cover up deep connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sending missiles and fighter jets and bomb after fiery bomb into Iran, setting the region ablaze.

Why? We don’t know exactly because we were never given a specific reason or a chance as a nation to approve or disapprove. This is a war foisted on us, and the possibility that it’s a war of distraction rather than a war of necessity seems strong.

US soldiers are in harm's way in Iran, running cover for a con artist

I won’t shed any tears for the Iranian leaders killed in this attack. I won’t argue the facts that Iran is in the grips of an evil regime, and that the people of Iran deserve far, far better.

But I will absolutely argue the motivation, the timing and the logic of this attack. I will argue the point of it, the use of our resources, and the ultimate agonizing cost of a decision that rested in the hands of one wholly untrustworthy man.

Powerful fools will start wars to avoid accountability, under the pretense that the blood of others might wash away their sins.

“That's the way it is,” Trump said of the four service members already killed in this folly.

Their blood will wash away nothing. Nothing.

And history will harshly judge the stain of Trump’s cold and casual words.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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