Trump and Netanyahu Broke Cardinal Rules of the Working Class

I have several concerns regarding how Trump and Netanyahu have conducted this War on Iran that hasn’t been articulated yet.

First, there was the surprise bombing of Iran by both Netanyahu and Trump, both two of the least courageous world leaders that have started the war based on a feeling. It caught the people of Iran and the Middle East by surprise. There was no difference between their method and the bombing of Pearl Harber by the Japanese which led to our entering the Second World War. Ironically our country then was more like the policy of MAGA to not launch a war but to maintain a position of isolationism. That attack led to bitterness toward the Japanese people by American citizens resulting in placing the Japanese in interment camps. The Japanese people had no part in the decision as they had established America as their homeland.

That did not stop them from being ostracized by the American culture for some time.

This way of attacking Iran and knowing the repercussions that would lead to crisis in Middle Eastern countries was seen as an act of cowardice by many people in countries around the world. In working class terminology, it was seen as a “sucker punch” which no one would do in the culture in which I was raised. I saw my share of fights between peers growing up. You would die before you sucker punched an opponent as that was seen as an act of cowardice. Even if you won the fight, you would lose it in the eyes of my peers.

There has been a lot of chests thumping by our draft dodging President and his wanna be warrior Pete Hegseth, but from the beginning it was not a fair right. There was formidable power based in the air power of America and Israel. Israel continues to bomb Beirut and is requiring 500,000 people from various locations to evacuate when there isn’t time for these people to do this. The people have indicated that there are no safe places in this expanding war. This is reminiscent of the way Netanyahu conducted the war against the people of Palestine after the October 7 attack by Hamas.

I have emailed and messaged friends who are living in those locations. It is a nightmare. One whose family lives in Beirut got back to me this morning appreciating my support of her and her family as it is very much needed. Working class people have a visceral reaction when they see that there isn’t a fair fight accompanied by a lot of bragging particularly from Netanyahu, Hegseth, and five-foot spurs Trump.

In every fight that I witnessed in working class culture there was always a clear end in sight. It usually took the form of one person winning and another person losing. It was cut and dry. But once the other person was defeated as I often was when learning to box, the opponent didn’t keep on beating the person into the ground. That would be frowned on as well, particularly in my case, where those gathered around in our makeshift ring in Mushy Mushanka’s garage next to my home. Everyone knew that I didn’t have a chance against his power and expertise. All that we are hearing during this Iran War particularly from Trump and Hegseth (“we are just beginning to fight”) that we will bomb those people “like nothing they have ever seen” proclaimed both of our wannabe warriors. Growing up in my world my peers had clear limits as to how much punishment you could exact from another person.

But there is more that comes under the heading that we are in peril if we don’t learn from history. We saw our concern during the War between Israel and the Palestinians after the October 7^th massacre of innocent Jewish people by Hamas, and, in turn, the world calling for Israel to stop the slaughter.

I am fearful that the same kind of reaction that occurred to the Japanese people in this country after Pearl Harbor will occur with the latent antisemitism that exists here and abroad. What caused the increase in antisemitism were people including Jewish people who did not like Netanyahu’s method of war in attacking Gaza. There was, in my opinion, a certain naivete that Jewish people in this country were subject to the anger from perceived genocide by Israel when they were innocent. People don’t separate blame from a country abroad conducting a war and people whose heritage goes back to that country who didn’t do a thing such as the innocent Jewish population in our country.

The same thing happened with the Japanese in this country. We have friends in Germany including an exchange student who is now part of the German government. It took a great deal for German citizens to overcome the actions of Hitler and the Nazis.  Germans in our country were targeted. The way that they achieved a new world view was to see Germany’s actions as evil. They did this by the overt way that the German people did not hide the horrific Holocaust and built museums and recognized historical events related to the Holocaust so that they could move forward never denying the terrible legacy of Hitler.

Trump determines actions by which way the polls are going. He recently said that he started the war not Israel because of his need to seem powerful. However, after the beginning of the Iran conflict it seemed a debate occurred if it was Netanyahu who got us into the war or was it Trump. Given Trump’s propensity to throw people under the bus such as Kristi Noem, Netanyahu better be careful.

There is another example to consider. I did not own slaves, and I didn’t fight for the North, but don’t think that there are not vestiges of the Civil War still in place in the South. As most of you know I went to school in the South at Duke and married a girl from Raleigh who was at North Carolina State University. When I first worshipped in Christ Church in Raleigh, there was a plague which was the first thing that I saw. It was designated to those who fought the ENEMY in the Great War. When her sorority sisters found out she was dating someone who attended Yale, they questioned, “You’re dating a Yankee?” I had to win them over.

A student who was doing a residency vet program from Auburn was living next to us in Raleigh. He confessed when he saw that Pennsylvania license plate on my car that he was very concerned about introducing himself to us. Wars leave cultural damage such as anti -Asian sentiments, anti-German bias, and antisemitism. People will amplify their biases on such populations.

We need to stand with the people wrongfully attacked in our country with unconditional support.