Are We Heading to War? Did Trump Talk Himself Into a War?

The Role of Propaganda in Civilian Buy-In for War is Usually Ignored.

Are We Heading to War? Did Trump Talk Himself Into a War?

There are moments when a path towards war is more obvious. Today, it was one of those moments. This photo appeared in the New York Post. And as you all know. The Post is a Murdoch paper. It is one read by MAGA and the conservative right.

And yes, I did watch the video on Telegram, and it was targeted. Yes, the photo is very legitimate, just as the photos of beheaded Ukrainians that have made it to Telegram from time to time, in places like near Kharkiv.

So why did this photo in particular tell me we are closer to open war? Well, let’s start with the history of propaganda and how you create buy-in among civilians.

This image is from 1915. The USS Lusitania was sunk on May 7, 1915. So, notice the date. And I will spare you the debate as to whether she was transporting ammo. That was a much later debate, mostly among historians. And the reason the Germans claimed she was a legitimate target.

I want you to put yourself in the shoes of a regular person reading this in the newspaper:

These headlines were across all newspapers. It was a similar story, leaving out some facts. These were to be debated decades later.

Then there is this from the Spanish-American War. A hundred years later, we know it was an accident. We also know the yellow press played a critical role in getting buy-in and outrage from civilians.

Let’s look closer at us. And I will skip Pearl Harbor. I think we are all very familiar with that event. I want to look at the first Gulf War. Do you remember the babies dying in incubators?

Well, this is from 1992 in the Los Angeles Times, when that story started to develop a few holes. You might say it was taking water:

Amid all the uncontested, horrifyingly brutal actions of the Iraqi occupation army in Kuwait, the notorious baby-incubator story stands out. Did it happen as purported eyewitnesses insist? Or was it an exaggeration, a product of hysteria, propaganda?

Here in Kuwait, in a society painfully sensitive to still-fresh images of Iraqi abuse, the question is not asked. Almost all Kuwaitis appear to believe the accusation. With all else the Iraqis did here — the torture chambers, peremptory executions, rapes and systematic looting — the incubator story does not stretch belief.

In a press conference last week, Sheik Salim al Salim al Sabah, the foreign minister, mentioned it in a litany of bitter occupation milestones. It has been official Kuwaiti writ since the reports first surfaced a month after the August, 1990, invasion, reinforced by the testimony of a tearful 15-year-old girl before a U.S. congressional hearing two months later, the girl who said the soldiers “left the babies on the cold floor to die.”

But the official version is under challenge. A number of human rights organizations say their investigations do not support it. Amnesty International, for instance, said its inquiries in April, 1991, shortly after the Gulf War ended, “found no reliable evidence that Iraqi forces had caused the deaths of babies by removing them or ordering their removal from incubators.”

And once we found out the woman giving testimony to the UN was the daughter of the ambassador, the story crumbled. It made a comeback on the road to the second Gulf War, though.

Let me say this: Saddam Hussein was a terrible man. He committed many atrocities, including using chemical warfare against his people. But this story took hold of the imagination.

I suspect defenseless babies or toddlers are easier to identify with than faceless civilians who died under chemical attack. And yes, that attack comes with a lot of baggage, including the fact that Halabja supported Iran as a possible way to earn their independence from Iraq. It was messy, and we all prefer simple stories.

Babies taken from incubators is a simple story. However, that did not happen. That Kuwait was liberated from Iraq is a good thing. That war stopped at the border. The call for an uprising inside Iraq did happen, with the Marsh people. We just sat back, because President George Bush understood something his son did not…Iraq would become a quagmire, like it did in 2003.

But that story of the babies taken out of incubators made the rounds as well.

Which brings me back to this photo from the post. As I said, the photo is very legitimate. Many of us who do OSINT saw the video. It was an FPV drone, meaning the Russian operator had complete control. It was intentional. These photos, generally speaking, don’t make it to the American press any longer. Yes, editors see them, but they usually stay off the air or print.

But why now? Donald Trump is pissed with Vladimir Putin. He might have figured it out. Putin does not want peace. Many of us could have told the president this. On Monday, he is supposed to make a significant announcement on Russia. He will be selling equipment to NATO to send to Ukraine.

But there is more. As I keep saying, Europe is preparing for war, and now the UK Telegraph is running pieces on how Russia will use tactical nukes. Yes, this is via Russian Telegram:

Desperate Putin can resort to nuclear weapons.

Putin and his entourage are now thinking about it seriously. The publication writes that due to the prolongation of the war, Putin may resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

This forecast is not so fantastic.

Theoretically, Putin has no other way out.

Ahead of him is either the shame of “victory” or the shame of defeat.

A twisted, crooked and criminal “victory”, meaningless, but bought at the cost of millions of corpses and total destruction, will cost Putin even more than any military crash.

Both outcomes of the SVO are equally catastrophic for the Kremlin patient.

He is able to understand it, even despite his illness.

Accordingly, his delusional war leaves him no options except for a large-scale Armageddon. Only in his flames can Vladimir Putin’s shame be burned. (in him, as you know, everything burns down in general).

Tactical nuclear is a great way to start this Armageddon.

Absolutely any negotiations are meaningless.

Optimists like Macron and Trump believe that they are talking to the President of the Russian Federation. In fact, “peace negotiations” are not with Putin, but with a serious disease of his brain, which has nothing to do with reality and does not perceive arguments.

Those who say the opposite simply have no idea even about the basics of psychiatry.

Such a severe form of SRL (sadistic personality disorder) is not subject to human logic; it does not perceive any words or arguments.

(This type of ear disorder does not have.)

To this is added the enchanting cowardice and inadequacy of the population of the Russian Federation, which has long been turned by Putin into an instrument of violence and war.

The removal of the Kremlin ghoul from power, of course, will not solve the hellish issue of the Russian threat to peace, but will give humanity time to come up with a way out of a very dangerous situation.

Nevzorov

Yes, Russian Telegram picked this up. Alexander Nevzorov is among the few liberals remaining in Russia. But his commentary is interesting.

So that photo I see it as starting the process of developing civilian buy in for war. Trump is the absolute worst person for this moment. But, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you go to war with the president you have, not the one you wish you had.

Wartime, as both world wars have demonstrated, will inevitably lead to the erosion of civil rights. This includes the ability to question the government as well. The First World War saw the Alien and Sedition Act of 1918. World War II saw the Internment of Japanese Americans. And after 9–11, we saw the US Patriot Act. I wonder what is waiting in the wings?

Because war could be one way for Trump to force all his critics to shut up in the name of national security, how long will it take for him to realize his dream of expelling all illegals, and trust me, some of us here very legally fit that definition in his mind, will be needed to keep the nation fed in wartime because he has not figured this out during nominal peace time.