So Far, So Good? I don’t think so.


Now its Monday night, two days into the US/Israel War with Iran, and its quite clear that the United States doesn’t know what it is doing, why it is doing it, or when it can ever stop.

Sunday and today, we saw absolute clown shows across the US government:

So far we’ve heard 12 different primary reasons for the war, 7 different main objectives, and 5 different exit strategies.

— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 3:12 PM

[image or embed]

— George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 (@gtconway.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 7:37 AM

The glibness. The indifference. The carelessness. The utter lack of planning for a war against a country of 90M. The sickness of a man who acts on whim that will kill thousands not hundreds. The horror of a regime that enables this sickness. The broken body politic that votes in such malignancy.

— Steven Beschloss (@stevenbeschloss.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 7:39 PM

So Marco Rubio is now saying the “very clear” reason the US went to war — and he expresses astonishment that some are claiming there is confusion about the “why” — is that Israel was going to attack Iran, and Iran would have responded by hitting the US, therefore the US was in imminent danger of an attack which it pre-empted with its own attack. Got it? Simple. Easy peasy.

Also, that whole regime change thing? That’s so 48 hours ago. Gone. Dropped down the memory hole. It may become back, of course. Hell, they may say anything, who knows? But gone for now.

The people in charge of the world’s sole superpower are clowns so incompetent they could bankrupt a casino.

– Dan Gardner

Read on Substack

This is actually a pretty good summary of where we’re at, and how we got here.

[image or embed]

— John Collins (@logicallyjc.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 1:54 PM

Just like Venezuela does not send fentanyl to the U.S. and Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. It’s all been false flags to justify military aggression and war.

[image or embed]

— George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 1:31 PM

How exactly are we supposed to respond to Pete Hegseth angrily snapping, “We didn’t start this war!” when they *bloody well did* and and the whole world watched it happen on television?

Does he not actually know that by every conceivable standard America is the aggressor here?

– Seth Abramson

Read on Substack

“No stupid rules of engagement.”

That’s Hegseth, ending any semblance of the laws of war and committing to routine war crimes. We’re becoming barbarians.

– Andrew Sullivan

Read on Substack

OMG, do they think its a holy war?

In the meantime, Canadians have not been happy to see the Carney government supporting the US bombing attack on Iran – or, in the words of the Carney/Anand statement “acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.”
Here’s a listing of the criticisms I’ve seen:
/
Lloyd Axworthy “double standard [to] curry favour”
David Coletto “sudden and open-ended”
Justin Ling “feckless, bewildering, totally unnecessary”
Lorne Warwick “bootlicking”
Dale Smith “pragmatism without much in the way of principle”
Charlie Angus “Playing nice with crocodiles in the hope that they will be nice to us never ends well”
Evan Scrimshaw is ready to listen but wants an explanation ASAP.

Carney: Canada supports the United States…

Canada: no, we fucking do not.

— Jen the Feisty Librarian (@feistywaters.com) February 28, 2026 at 10:42 AM

I have seen three arguments that support Carney: avoiding a direct rupture with Trump, keeping Canada on-side with America, and maybe he knows something we don’t know.

At Thoughtful Energy Journalism, podcaster Markham Hislop wrote on Sunday Baying Hounds in a Fractured World: The Canadian Fox Is Not Yet Run to Ground A more nuanced view of the Prime Minister Mark Carney’s response to the US-Israel attack

…Was the government’s language imperfect? Yes. Could it have been more carefully calibrated? Certainly. But to demand that Carney respond as if it were 2003 — to insist that he speak as then Liberal foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy once did, invoking the United Nations Charter with moral absolutism — is to ignore that the architecture which made that posture coherent has been smashed.
Axworthy’s Sunday critique in The Star rests on a vanished premise: that the rules-based order is intact and enforceable.
It is not.
…Canada supports preventing nuclear proliferation. That is easy consensus language. Canada did not endorse regime change. Canada did not commit troops. Canada emphasized civilian protection. Canada positioned itself close enough to Washington to avoid direct rupture, but far enough to avoid co-ownership of the war.
It was balancing.
Could he have downplayed the endorsement further? Yes.
He might have led with de-escalation language. He might have stressed Canada’s non-involvement more forcefully. He might have explicitly flagged the absence of a regime-change endgame. This last one is particularly important, given Trump’s bungling of Venezuela. And he might have supported elimination of the nuclear program while seeming to avoid endorsing open-ended political transformation.
That is the narrow ledge Canada occupies.
…There will be time to judge Carney’s handling of Iran. If the war widens, for example, or if Canada is somehow drawn in. But today is not that day.
Today is a moment of rupture in a fractured order, driven by a superpower that no longer anchors the system as it once did. The hounds may bay. The fox may run.
But before we demand that Carney walk the plank, we should first acknowledge that the sea itself has changed.

In the Globe and Mail, opinion columnist Campbell Clark writes Carney picks a realpolitik side on Iran war

…When Mr. Carney issued a statement supporting the attacks, he offered a dose of the realpolitik he claims to espouse.
He chose to put Canada on the side of its biggest ally and trading partner when it went to war against a repressive regime that foments terror and conflict – even if the casus belli is being fudged.
He chose not to quibble over the legalities. Then he quickly ruled out any future military role.
It was, to use a phrase that Mr. Carney favours, an example of taking the world as it is, not as we wish it would be.
Like most of the world, Mr. Carney and Canada will watch from the sidelines as Mr. Trump takes a high-stakes gamble on a war of choice.
It’s hard not to hope that the gamble ends with a new and different Iranian government that reflects the will of its people and stops bankrolling terror and conflict across the Middle East. It’s hard not to worry that it is unlikely the bombing will accomplish that…

I agree. I think people took issue with “Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon” when Trump had just unilaterally cut off all negotiations and bombed the crap out of them.

That said, Carney and Anand have far more intelligence access than any of us.

— Democracy, Canadian Style 🇨🇦 Elbows Up! (@democracycan.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 9:00 PM

In order to call out support for the US relating to the situation in Iran, PM Carney must have much intelligence to support that position.

— louisek2.bsky.social (@louisek2.bsky.social) February 28, 2026 at 2:34 PM

As for how the war is going – I think “badly” covers it. Here’s a quick summary:

Like when Putin invaded Ukraine, the Trump administration seemed to expect that Iran would collapse in just a few days – like Venuzeula, like law firms and universities, like businesses and corporations.
Not.

Trump + his Gnomes:
1. Bomb Iran
2. ???
3. Regime change!

— Cathie from Canada🍁 (@cathiecanada.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 12:09 PM

So now thousands of Americans across the Middle East have found themselves trapped and in trouble.

a thing historians will marvel about when they study this era is the extent to which the “war is a thing that happens to poorer, browner people” class went about systematically dismantling every aspect of the global political order that confined the costs of war to poorer and browner people

[image or embed]

— Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 9:32 PM

Saudi Arabia isn’t happy anymore either:

European bases in the region are being attacked too, so now Europe is getting dragged in:

⚡️Update: UK, France, Germany threaten potential ‘defensive action’ against Iran’s missile, drone capabilities.

“We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through…defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones.”

[image or embed]

— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) March 1, 2026 at 2:24 PM

CNN’s Live Tracker is reporting tonight that Americans have been told to leave the Middle East – how, I’m not sure – and Canadians are being told to leave the UAE. Oh, and the Asian markets are plunging already.

Trump just held a press conference about war with Iran, and spent much of it talking about drapes and his ballroom. I guess those are the drapes of wrath???

– Paul Krugman

Read on Substack



Source link

  • Related Posts

    It’s election season again. This is why and how AP calls races across the country

    WASHINGTON (AP) — So, who won? That’s a question The Associated Press has answered many thousands of times in U.S. elections held since shortly after the news organization was founded…

    Prime Minister Carney speaks with President of the United Arab Emirates His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

    Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, spoke with the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The Prime Minister expressed Canada’s solidarity with…

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    You Missed

    Football is life! ‘Dani Rojas’ from ‘Ted Lasso’ is on trial at a USL club

    Football is life! ‘Dani Rojas’ from ‘Ted Lasso’ is on trial at a USL club

    Saudia’s 10 New Ultra-Long Routes In 2026

    Saudia’s 10 New Ultra-Long Routes In 2026

    Global Diesel Prices Surge Higher as Iran War Disrupts Supplies

    A timeline of how B.C. got to Pacific time year-round

    A timeline of how B.C. got to Pacific time year-round

    College students add puppy training to their course load

    Israel and US Strike Iran Military and Leadership With New Attacks

    Israel and US Strike Iran Military and Leadership With New Attacks