War is too important to be left to Caligula

US President Donald Trump speaks during a televised address on the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, DC on Wednesday. AFP

No sooner had US President Donald Trump ended his special address to the nation on Wednesday—Thursday around 6.50 a.m. Sri Lanka time—than War Secretary Pete Hegseth took to X to post a hubristic message. Echoing Trump’s warning to Iran, he tweeted with a mix of megalomania, perversion, and sarcasm: “Back to the Stone Age.” 

The “Stone Age” that maverick Trump and fanatic Hegseth threaten to reduce Iran to is, in fact, a more fitting description of the United States’ own behaviour. The United States’ “might is right” attitude is what the Stone Age was made of. US policy, together with Israel’s, drags the world away from the Enlightenment Age back to the Stone Age.

Need proof? Wasn’t it Stone Age behaviour when the US kidnapped Venezuela’s elected president Nicolás Maduro; when it resorted to deception and force instead of diplomacy to resolve its disputes with Iran; when it supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza; when it does not respect international law; when it imposes sanctions on United Nations officials, including International Criminal Court judges and prosecutors?

And wasn’t it Stone Age behaviour when the Trump administration withdrew from global measures aimed at protecting the planet from climate change disasters? Need we mention Trump’s association with convicted sex trafficker and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein? The list of Stone Age deeds that the US has adopted as policy is indeed long. Americans should be ashamed of their country’s Stone Age behaviour. The earlier fair-minded Americans oust Trump from power through impeachment, the better chance they will have to regain the country’s reputation as a civilised nation.

Yesterday’s speech by Trump held no surprises. It merely repeated what he had already expressed in his Truth Social posts. His speeches and remarks befit the kind of ruler warned about in the Madman Theory of international relations. At every opportunity, he presents himself as a man of peace, yet his actions spill blood and cause destruction worldwide.

The illegal war he and his handler, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—alias ‘the butcher of Gaza’—are imposing on the world affects all 8 billion people, including Americans. The worst hit are the poor in developing countries. Trump and Netanyahu don’t give two hoots about the world’s poor. What they seek is global hegemony.

Perhaps Iran, together with its allies Hezbollah and the Houthis of Yemen, are the only forces that have shown the courage to resist the institutionalisation of an evil world order.  As has often been the case with Trump’s speeches, yesterday’s speech also lacked clarity on whether the objectives had been achieved. Moreover, it was filled with the usual lies, damn lies, and contradictions. It was tailored more to appeal to credulous US voters ahead of the November midterm elections than to explain the realities of the war. Trump is no Henry Kissinger when it comes to international relations. He is more like a Caligula, the first-century Roman emperor who, according to ancient sources, was initially a populist but later a “mad” ruler whose behaviour shocked Roman society.

Trump likely never heard of Sun Tzu, the legendary Chinese military strategist (544–496 BCE). Sun Tzu wrote: “If you know both yourself and your enemy, you will win countless battles; if you know yourself but not your enemy, your victories will be matched by defeats; if you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will lose every battle.” 

Trump belongs to the third category. He says something in the morning and contradicts himself in the evening. Regime change was one of the objectives. He claims it has been achieved, but the rest of the world sees that the same old system of governance still runs Iran. Destroying Iran’s enriched uranium was another justification for the war, but Trump now says he does not care about the stockpile. Free passage through the Strait of Hormuz was another objective, but now he says it is not for the US to secure it; those who depend on it should do so themselves.

In short, Sun Tzu advised rulers that brute force alone would not assure victory. Preparedness, strategic insight, and awareness of the enemy were far more important in battle.

Goaded by Israel and acting like a mercenary of the Zionist regime, the Trump administration launched the illegal war against Iran, relying largely on the brute military muscle the US prides itself on flexing. The War Department—known as the Defence Department until its rebranding under Trump, the bogus “peace president”—is now headed by a misguided fanatic bent on fast-tracking Armageddon and the return of Jesus Christ. In such circumstances, how can strategy play a central role in war? Surrounded by appointees who spend more time massaging Trump’s ego than guiding him toward sanity, it is doubtful he has ever heard of Sun Tzu. 

The US knows for certain that Iran has no nuclear bomb ambitions but would not acknowledge it largely in deference to Israel. No analyst or strategist worth their salt has endorsed the claim that Iran poses a threat to the US. Only warmonger Netanyahu has been uttering this lie for decades. Every US president avoided falling into Netanyahu’s trap. But Trump—the modern-day Caligula—fell for it without assessing the repercussions.

Devoid of strategic depth, Trump’s war on Iran is heading towards a disastrous quagmire. Operation Epic Fury may end up as Operation Epic Failure if the US does not end the war as early as possible, on terms agreeable to both sides. 

Yet Trump, whose popularity has plummeted to a record low, signalled yesterday that although the war has been won, it may continue for two more weeks, during which he pledged to hit Iran ‘extremely hard’. “Over the next two to three weeks, we are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.” 

With these words, oil prices surged and stock market indices slid, intensifying the hardships the world’s poor have been suffering since the US–Israeli axis launched its illegal war on Iran on February 28.

Whether the much-bragged-about US boots on the ground are being used as a bargaining chip, one does not know. But one thing is certain: there is no early end to the war. Iran is being hit, yet it appears determined not to raise the white flag, even though its schools, hospitals, pharmaceutical facilities, and other civilian infrastructure are being destroyed in the US–Israeli attacks that without doubt constitute war crimes. In response to Trump’s speech, Iran vows to hit Israeli and US targets in the region.

While some developments stir hopes for a peaceful settlement of the conflict—especially the Pakistan-led efforts and a workable China–Pakistan five-point peace plan—the tempo is also high for escalation, with the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries vowing to join or back the offensive against Iran. These nations—which were complicit by their inaction in the Gaza genocide—have no qualms about teaming up with Israel against a fellow Muslim nation. 

These Gulf states have now become the target of Iran’s retaliation and are paying the price for allowing the US–Israeli axis to use their airspace and military bases to attack Iran. Now they are backing the ground invasion, the consequences of which will be too much for the world to bear. Humanity at large will be the ultimate loser. But does Trump care?