From what I understand about Trump’s decision to attack Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani in Iraq, it seems to be a dangerous move, an unforced error that puts the U.S. at risk. There is a lot of outrage on the political left. Before attacking Trump, I think it’s important to recognize that the U.S. is a bipartisan war-mongering state, and this includes numerous undeclared wars waged by Barack Obama. It also includes the fact that there are few vocal anti-war Democrats running for President. It also includes widespread Congressional nonchalance in the face of the recent report showing “U.S. officials constantly said they were making progress. They were not, and they knew it, an exclusive Post investigation found.”

It’s also important to recognize that Congress has the power to supervise and control these adventures, but won’t. War is job-security for many politicians. It makes them look strong and thus more electable. Thus the waging of wars of discretion continues to be our non-stop horrifically expensive and dangerous hobby. War-mongering is a cancer in our bipartisan body politic. I’d urge everyone who is criticizing Trump to keep this in perspective. The problem runs much deeper than Trump, and the reason you won’t see widespread protests in the street in reaction to Trump’s terrible decision is the same reason you didn’t see such protests while Obama was waging numerous undeclared wars, many of them with no clearly defined metric of success.