April 1:

Will Trump ever get tired of losing?

Wesley Wark

…How would the war end? Trump evoked, shockingly, the ghost of US Air Force General Curtis Lemay, a life-long proponent of air power, even of the use of atomic weapons, who urged massive air strikes during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fortunately, President John F. Kennedy thought better of such a strategy. Undeterred, LeMay advocated for an all-out air campaign on industrial targets in North Vietnam. His goal, in his infamous phrase, was to force an end to the fighting, or “we’ll bomb them back to the Stone Age.” Trump went further, not only threatening to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, but adding, “where they belong.”
When would the war end? There was some speculation that Trump might use the speech to to proclaim victory and announce the war was over. “Take the win” as some European leaders have urged him. No, not yet. He said only that the US was “on track” to meet its objectives and promised that the war would end soon, maybe in the next 2-3 weeks. At the same time, the speech was full of boasts about the destruction wrought by US power on Iran’s navy, air force, its ballistic missiles capabilities, defence industrial base, the command and control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and, of course, the regime leadership. Between the depiction of an Iran whose military power was totally obliterated, and a war that still needed some weeks of prosecution lay only a puzzle about what more was intended. Trump said nothing about boots on the ground, nothing about seizing Kharg island with its key oil facilities, nothing about forcibly reopening the Strait of Hormuz, nothing about launching special forces missions to capture stockpiles of enriched uranium. But he did threaten to bomb Iran’s electricity generation –a war crime.
What would victory look like? According to Trump, it would look like American leadership “of the free world,” to forever end an Iranian nuclear weapons program and bury a terrorist regime. He just couldn’t say how he was going to accomplish any of this by bombing….
… the biggest Presidential whopper was Trump’s statement that he never said regime change was the US goal, despite saying just that in his message at the very outset of Epic Fury. True, regime change didn’t happen; there was no plan to make it happen; in fact the US-Israeli war seems to have led to regime resurgence and retrenchment. A brazen lie covers none of that up.
What would the future hold? In Trump’s imaginary, everything would just go back to the way it was before, minus the threat of Iran. The Strait of Hormuz would reopen, naturally; the world’s oil and natural gas would flow through it, naturally. The US would remain the world’s mightiest military power, naturally. Gas prices would come down; the stock market would rise.
What would the future hold? In Trump’s imaginary, everything would just go back to the way it was before, minus the threat of Iran. The Strait of Hormuz would reopen, naturally; the world’s oil and natural gas would flow through it, naturally. The US would remain the world’s mightiest military power, naturally. Gas prices would come down; the stock market would rise.
Not much else of the future was sketched out. A future that has been shaken, and irredeemably changed, by the US-Israeli war of choice.
Trump Agonistes is not quite Milton’s Samson Agonistes. But they share something. Recall the story. Samson, vastly proud of his strength, but robbed of his hair by his treacherous wife, brought low and blinded, seeks to show off his might and seek his revenge against the Philistines, pulling down their temple, killing his enemies, and dying himself in the rubble.
If Trump cannot find an exit ramp for his Iran war, one that he can sell to a restive American audience, and an appalled set of allies, if he remains blinded by the Venezuelan scenario of a quick coup d’etat and an accommodating successor regime, if he remains tied to the chariot wheel of Israeli war plans, he risks pulling down his MAGA temple on himself.
Poor Samson.

Post tonight by U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stating: “Back to the Stone Age.” Parroting a phrase said today by President Trump in his Address to the Nation and in a post on TruthSocial, in which he threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages!!!”

[image or embed]

— OSINTdefender [UNOFFICIAL] (@sentdefender-mirr.selfhosted.social) April 1, 2026 at 9:11 PM

Trump’s “bom” is not “bast”-ing very well anymore:

Call me crazy but I feel like there’s starting to be some constraints applied to Trump behind the scenes and he’s being boxed in more and more.

i don’t have any special knowledge or anything, but that address tonight was really …. weird. and …. flat.

he feels like he’s deflating quickly.

— The Captain (@thoreau.bsky.social) April 1, 2026 at 7:38 PM

[image or embed]

— JeffTrnka (@jefftrnka.bsky.social) April 1, 2026 at 8:02 PM

If you are having trouble remembering all the ins and outs and ups and downs of this war, like I am, the 2026 Iran War Wikipedia page is pretty good.

Canada Good News

Here’s some good news. Maya Gebala, the 12 year old girl who was shot in the head during the Tumbler Ridge school shooting, has been moved from the ICU to a recovery and rehab unit.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/…

[image or embed]

— Bon Hanson (@bonhanson.bsky.social) April 1, 2026 at 1:03 PM

“The Rossignol team took three robots, designed to manoeuvre around obstacles and complete tasks within four minutes, to the Skills Canada Saskatchewan provincial competition in Regina on Friday. The team members won gold medals and the trip to nationals.”
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/…

[image or embed]

— Cathie from Canada🍁 (@cathiecanada.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 12:56 AM