There’s so much to say about Trump’s decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. Mike Lawler said this:

Yes, that’s the same emoji string that Trump’s disgraced former national security advisor Michael Waltz used in the infamous Signal group chat leaks.

And if you had to look up FAFO like I did, it means “f*** around and find out,” which seems to be the mantra for the Trump regime. It also happens to be the slogan of the Proud Boys, printed on their hats and tees, though used in other contexts as well.

As one commentator said in Slate at the time of the Signal leak:

“Is it too much to ask our nation’s designated button-pushers to at least act like this is real? Is it too much to ask them to discuss a military operation with statesmanlike assurance, rather than with bluff enthusiasm, high-fives, and the muscular-arm emoji?….[T]o observe the most powerful people in the world fist-flag-firing their way through another day at the office, while across the world fire rains from the sky and human beings perish—it fills me with despair.”

Lawler often uses elementary school level discourse and analysis of deadly serious issues. And now, just to comfort us that he’s thinking clearly, he’s tossing in purile emojis, slang acronyms favored by proud boys, and random initial caps on his words like Trump.

I have so many thoughts as I shake my head in wonder at Lawler’s post. Mostly, my mind drifts back to Bush’s invasion of Iraq. The manipulated intelligence; the “I am the decider” President (“I may do it. I may not.“); the “mission accomplished” moment, before the ensuing 9 years of war, death and destruction.

What happened to the art of the deal? Trump killed Obama’s 2015 agreement with Iran, saying he could negotiate a much better one. Which he wasn’t able to do through his first four years in office, or through this most recent round. Meanwhile, Iran has been free to ramp up its enrichment activities, with sanctions doing little to curb its sponsorship of terror.

So now we have Trump on Netanyahu’s leash, doing what he always does. He’s gambling with house money. Trump bullied his way through the real estate world with his father’s money. Now he bullies his away around the world with the taxpayers’ money, and nothing to lose. He’s a very old and very lame duck. So why not drop the bombs and gamble on glory, change the subject in the most irresponsible of ways?

As with many of the recent impulsive Trump decisions, countless lives are in the balance, our military not least of all. Does it really feel like this will “bring the Middle East to the precipice of Peace,” as assessed by Lawler? I think the observations of Mike Pence’s former homeland security and counterterrorism advisor, Olivia Troye, are closer to the mark:

Then there was Mike Lawler in his favorite Fox-hole yesterday, bowing to Trump’s “decisive decision,” and lecturing that Trump “did not start” Iran, he just “finished the job.”

The job is far from finished. 🙏