World War Weird
Things are happening so quickly with MAGA's illegal war that it can be a challenge to keep up with events. As I read over my last post, I saw how I was floundering to keep up with the news. I also saw how I unnecessarily narrowed my focus by comparing Trump's Operation Epstein Fury to Hitler's Case Blue. The truth is that Epic Fail is more of an amalgamation of both Hitler's greatest blunders: Operation Barbarossa and Case Blue, as well as a smattering of other interesting parallels from World War II. In other words, this isn’t one historical blunder but a composite of every major strategic delusion of the most destructive war in human history. Does that concern you? It should.
💥💥💥💥💥
As with Hitler believing that Stalin's Russia was so weak that a furious invasion would cause the entire country to collapse, Trump, who, it must be pointed out that, often read from Hitler's My New Order according to Ivana, convinced himself that an aggressive bombing campaign across Iran would result in a collapse so quick that there wasn't any need to prepare for Iran's long held strategy of closing the Strait of Hormuz. I know, I know. That is too stupid to believe, but it has been confirmed by reporting. I guess we shouldn't be surprised because birds of a fascist feather often flock together. Now, Trump, like Hitler, is trapped in a fiasco of his own design, with no exit strategy beyond doubling down, much as Hitler found himself doing.
Not content to make one easily avoided blunder, Trump, for a second time, seems to be taking a page from the Hitlerian playbook by pursuing his version of the Wehrmacht's Case Blue, only one not crafted by those schooled in the operational art of war, but by those who military expertise began with Call of Duty and ended as a Rambo cosplayer over at FOX News or as a bagman for the Epstein Class on Wall Street. As such, Trump's Case Blue, but let's call it Case Pew-Pew, has now escalated the war, resulting in more than 1400 dead Iranian citizens (including 160 dead children killed when the US military hit their school with a Tomahawk cruise missile), smashed Iranians infrastructure, and, let us not forget, the largest oil disruption in human history. As I wrote in my last piece, Case Blue ultimately led to the downfall of Hitler because it triggered the Wehrmacht's devastating defeat at Stalingrad. Trump's Case Pew-Pew looks to be on a similar track, as a ground invasion appears increasingly likely as two Marine Expeditionary Units are en route to the Gulf. What could possibly go wrong?
Interestingly, Trump, along with his task master, Benjamin Netanyahu, seemed to have settled on a strategy for Case Pew-Pew right out of the American Eighth Air Force during WWII, which is to say a general bombing of the entire country. In some ways, it is a reverse of what was observed in WWII, where, as the war went on and technology advanced (such as the development of the famed Norden bombsight), Allied bombing campaigns became more precise. In the current conflict, we are seeing a regression from precision bombing. This is a result of two factors, the first being America's supply of precision weaponry running dangerously low, something that has forced a switch to old-fashioned, far less accurate "gravity bombs" that do their work not with precision but sheer explosive power. The second factor is more prosaic: Trumpian frustration. As various media outlets have reported, Trump truly did believe that this attack on Iran was going to play out as it did in 2025 or, more recently, as it did with his oil-fueled Venezuelan raid - something intense but brief. Obviously, it has not. Instead, he finds himself not in an Iranian "excursion" (how much do you want to bet he heard this operation described as an "incursion" but didn't know what that meant?) but in a full-on hot war with an opponent enraged by American and Israeli perfidy, and an opponent that has now proven itself resilient and capable of fighting back? You know, sort of like how Ukraine met Russian aggression? Kinda ironic that, especially seeing how Trump has always sided with the Russians in that conflict, and now finds himself in a similar position to Putin's and his European quagmire. Regardless, Trump et al. have, for the moment, been reduced to increasingly ineffective bombing runs on ancillary targets.
As the "Mighty Eighth" discovered nearly a century ago, you can bomb until you are blue in the face, but that won't collapse a determined regime. It didn't work against Nazi Germany. It didn't work against Imperial Japan. Well...until the A-bomb was used, that is.
💥💥💥💥💥
Another pattern from the Second World War echoes through the present moment: the danger of opening a new conflict before resolving the last.
It has always been observed by historians that of the many blunders committed by the egomaniacal Hitler, perhaps the most consequential was his decision to invade Russia before obtaining a victory against the obstinate UK. Despite a relentless air campaign on the part of Goering's Luftwaffe, that pesky Churchill would not throw in the towel. Instead, he resisted with everything he had, especially the tenacious Royal Air Force that gave as good as they got. Despite this significant strategic setback, Hitler did not postpone his planned invasion of the Soviet Union, but rather convinced himself that a UK capitulation was inevitable. So, off he went on his Ostfront adventure, opening a new front despite not concluding the prior struggle.
And so it seems to be going with Trump. As is well known, Trump has the attention span of a toddler. As soon as something takes too long, he gets bored or frustrated and looks for something else that he believes will be easier to achieve. Hence, it is not surprising that Trump is already talking about attacking Cuba because...why not?
“I do believe I'll be having the honor of taking Cuba. That's a big honor. Taking Cuba in some form,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth. They are a very weakened nation right now.”
It’s the oldest mistake in the book. Churchill put it plainly: “One ought never to turn one’s back on an unfinished task." Yet that is precisely what it seems Trump is intent on doing by abandoning Iran to focus on Cuba, an "excursion" that he no doubt believes will prove to be easier than Iran. I don't know, the Bay of Pigs didn't work out too well for the CIA, but let's not get sidetracked by a different historical period!
💥💥💥💥💥
There is another historical comparison to World War II that I find particularly interesting: the return of the "Buzz Bomb" aerial campaign. I am referring to Hitler's innovative use of unmanned rockets, initially the V-1, a slower, easily intercepted rocket (over 70% would be successfully shot down), followed by the V-2, the prototype of the modern ballistic missile being used today, which was impossible to intercept due to its supersonic speed. Both of these weapons wreaked havoc across Britain for the duration of the war, with their threat only being totally eliminated by Allied forces overrunning the launching facilities.
 |
| Germans readying a V-1 Rocket |
What we are witnessing in both the Russo-Ukrainian War and Trump's illegal war with Iran is a technological revolution. Drones and ballistic missiles are proving to be a viable rival to possessing a sophisticated air force. If Iran had used traditional fighter-bombers to wreck an American naval base or to smash Israeli cities, people would be stunned that the formidable air crews of those nations were unable to establish what is called "air superiority" by shooting down the incoming attackers. Yet, that is precisely what we are seeing, just with unmanned kamikaze "aircraft" instead of piloted machines worth millions of dollars.
We are seeing something astounding; an idea that dates back to World War II being given new life via technological advancements, and two of the most formidable powers on the globe, Israel and America, have been unable to offer an effective counter. Despite a four-week bombing campaign, the V-1s and V-2s of our age continue to fall across the Gulf.
Interestingly, the foremost expert on drone warfare, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, offered America assistance in countering the Iranian drones that have so plagued his country. Trump responded by saying, "We don't need their help in drone defense. We know more about drones than anybody. We have the best drones in the world, actually.”
Tell that to the now vacated American embassy in Baghdad.
💥💥💥💥💥
History tells us that one of the most effective strategies employed by Hitler during World War II was his use of U-boats to sink Allied shipping, something vital to keeping Britain in the war. "The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril," confessed the pugnacious Winston Churchill after the war.
That is the power of an effective maritime blockade. It can win wars where more traditional means fail. This is why Iran has been so canny in studiously applying its strategy of closing the Strait of Hormuz to what it considers to be hostile traffic. As with Hitler's U-boat tactics, Iran's use of drones and mines has achieved much the same results, with the global economy teetering on the edge of collapse as the lifeblood of many modern nation-states, petroleum, is pinched off.
The obvious counter-strategy would be to force open the Strait, something the ever-helpless Trump regime not only didn't plan for, but seems to be unwilling or unable to go it alone, as it begs and threatens allies to join it in forming an international naval taskforce. But, again, this being the shambolic Trump regime, without doubt the most comically inept administration in US history, has instead opted to pursue the rather, er, innovative strategy of allowing Iran, and its ally Russia, to sell more oil than ever before:
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday the easing of sanctions, first imposed after Iran's 1979 revolution, would be “narrowly tailored” and only temporary, “permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea.”
“By temporarily unlocking this existing supply for the world, the United States will quickly bring approximately 140 million barrels of oil to global markets, expanding the amount of worldwide energy and helping to relieve the temporary pressures on supply caused by Iran,” Bessent added.
...
Since the beginning of the month, the administration has also lifted the Jones Act, easing some shipping regulations, and has temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil as well.
Somewhere in hell, Ol' Adolf, who had been cheering on this administration, has now done a facepalm.
You really can't make this up! What the Trump regime has done is the equivalent of Hitler begging, say, Imperial Japan, to come help enforce a naval blockade around Britain instead of doing it itself, and upon the failure of such entreaties, announcing it will allow British and American naval traffic to continue unmolested to stabilize global trade!
This is such an asinine strategy that even a first-time Risk player would be unable to refrain from uproarious laughter at the absurdity of the strategy.
The only possible justification for enriching the coffers of an enemy during a shooting war is to use it as a bribe. This is a possibility that must be taken seriously when dealing with a fabulously corrupt president who has been seen to alter policy after receiving a bribe in past global dealings. Seeing the depths of the quagmire that is slowly sucking them to their doom, it is not inconceivable that a brazenly corrupt administration would default to what a brazenly corrupt administration does: resort to corruption, e.g., bribery, as a solution to an intractable problem.
Interestingly, it appears that Iran has now adopted a similar scheme where, in exchange for unspecified compensation, the maritime traffic of select nations is allowed to proceed through the Strait unmolested. So, not only is Iran collecting revenue from the actions of the Trump regime, but it is also collecting additional revenue from its own "pay to play" scheme it is enforcing in the Gulf, along with increased revenue from significantly elevated oil prices.
If this were a game of chess, Iran would be dominating the board with tempo, while Trump would be eating the pieces.
💥💥💥💥💥
Those are my musings about the striking parallels between the current fiasco of Epic Fury and World War II. Don't take them too seriously. I am not a historian, and my observations are superficial at best. Nonetheless, as someone who has done my fair share of reading, watching, and gaming about the most destructive war in human history, I like to think that my thoughts are not entirely off base. As countless pundits from political scientists to military officials have pointed out, Epstein Fury is proving to be an unmitigated disaster for not just this circus of a regime, but for the region of the Gulf as well. I believe it is safe to say that events have now spiralled so far out of control that it is not inconceivable that a stinging defeat for the globe's superpower is possible. Gerhard Weinberg, a preeminent historian of World War II, once wrote that "Germany lost the war because it was unable to win it." Incredibly, after a series of easily avoided mistakes eerily similar to those of Nazi Germany, Donald Trump and his cabinet of clowns have now put America in a similar situation.
💥💥💥💥💥
Comments
Post a Comment