{"id":53955,"date":"2025-06-22T14:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T22:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=53955"},"modified":"2025-06-22T14:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T22:14:14","slug":"ill-slug-you-and-if-you-resist-ill-slug-you-harder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/22\/ill-slug-you-and-if-you-resist-ill-slug-you-harder\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ll Slug You, and If You Resist, I’ll Slug You Harder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

U.S. messaging to Iran, courtesy of President Trump, is quite simple: We slugged you (with our bombing attacks on three nuclear sites in your country), and if you don\u2019t like it, we\u2019ll slug you again, even harder, much, much harder.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s only real choice: \u201cunconditional surrender,\u201d according to the president.<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s a strategy, I suppose, the one of the abuser, the bully. Do what I want, else you\u2019ll get slugged. Try to fight back, I\u2019ll slug you much much harder. Oh, by the way, I believe in peace. And you can have peace by totally capitulating to me.<\/p>\n

Another way of looking at or labeling this stategy: Bombing for Bibi. Yes, I know it\u2019s not just Bibi Netanyahu behind it all. But he\u2019s the chief flatterer, the skilled string-puller, the master manipulator of Trump. Not that it\u2019s entirely hard to manipulate a narcissist who\u2019s driven by money and consumed by his own ego.<\/p>\n

So, we have to look to Iran to show a measure of restraint, since the U.S. and Israel won\u2019t. If Iran chooses to fight, especially to hit back at U.S. targets in the region, all bets are off as our country stumbles into what could become World War III.<\/p>\n

As Jimmy Dore put it today, No matter who you vote for, you get John McCain. A warmonger. Someone proud to joke about bombing Iran \u2013 and crazy enough to do it. Does it really matter if the warmonger is named Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden \u2013 or Donald Trump?<\/p>\n

Congress, no surprise, is almost entirely behind Trump\u2019s attack, despite some griping and sniping from the sidelines. Congress may complain, but it\u2019s just posturing. That\u2019s how you get reckless wars of choice that are unsupported by the American people.<\/p>\n

Oh well. \u201cWe love you, God,\u201d as Trump said last night as he announced the bombings. I never learned in CCD that God loves bombs and bombing; I must have been sleeping or absent for that one. Thou shalt kill, right?<\/p>\n

William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. U.S. messaging to Iran, courtesy of President Trump, is quite simple: We slugged you (with our bombing attacks on three nuclear sites in your country), and if you don\u2019t like it, we\u2019ll slug you again, even harder, much, much harder. Iran\u2019s only real choice: \u201cunconditional surrender,\u201d according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[758],"class_list":["post-53955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"U.S. Strategy in Iran"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53960,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53955\/revisions\/53960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53955"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=53955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}