THE SHAME OF DROPPING BOMBS
There is no glory in unopposed air wars
As I write, American and Israeli warplanes are bombing targets in Iran at will, since its Russian-supplied S-300 air defense systems were shredded in earlier attacks. Today’s strikes on pre-selected and unprotected targets were known in previous wars as “turkey shoots”—which is to say there’s no significant opposition. Another example would be the Israeli Air Force’s unchallenged bombing attacks in Gaza, which have killed and maimed hundreds of thousands, if not more, in response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel. The bombing of Gaza is still going on.
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s unfit choice for secretary of defense, cannot stop bragging about the unopposed air war that has been tearing Iranian military and civilian targets apart. Hegseth has told journalists that the US combat operations, code-named Epic Fury, are “crushing the enemy,” whom he has labeled “terrorist cowards.” A few days ago he told a news conference: “We have only just begun to hunt. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”
In terms of reading newspapers and beginning to understand the world, I came of age in the late years of the Second World War, when America’s newspapers were full of US heroics abroad, as they are now full of murderous deeds in Iran. During the war, as kids in our pre-teens, my twin brother and I would be taken to afternoon movies—the local theater in Chicago was named V, for victory—by our older sisters. We would cheer madly at the blatant propaganda that was being produced about the war on the ground and in the air by Hollywood. We loyal Americans are, I fear, getting much of the same today.
