The ‘lame duck’ effect is a comparatively old phrase: It describes the fact that due to the ending time in office a president in his second term is less effective. In other words, his power decreases just because everybody knows the end is near.
The Epstein files, Trump’s own guilt, ruled in front of a US court for corruption, bribery and molestation, his cruelty towards his own people in Minnesota or California; his international politics in regard to tariffs that have been found illegal in the USA itself.
He has ample reason to want to cover up. War is an ancient method for that, has been used by kings and dictators for centuries, if not thousands of years.
Additionally, Iran’s oil recovery industry is the largest in the world.
The uranium enrichment control contracts with Iran had been reached after 10 years of negotiation and were in full working order even according to official reports of the IAEA. Trump cancelled those contracts in 2018 without any reason.
This whole attack would be funny, if it wasn’t a cruel war; the typical Trump tantrums of an ill-mannered child: “This is my sandcastle, I’ll kick you and yours if you don’t do what I want.”
The bully, using scare tactics.
There’s no discussion necessary that the internal handling and rules as well as laws of the present Iranian government are horrible.
I still tip my hat to them for holding out against this huge machine of extortion.
Iran is more than just a few wild mullahs and a revolution gone wrong. It’s an ancient and beautiful culture and society in many respects of the customs and traditions that are thousands of years old.
Shame on someone like that US-criminal at the helm of a country still fighting for its own culture and sometimes having a hard time of it… Where still far too often money is the ‘sole mover’…
Image: Radio Deutschlandfunk (Germany), “Nach einem Luftschlag auf eine Raffinerie in Teheran ging sogenannter Schwarzer Regen auf Teheran nieder (Bild vom 8.3.2026) (AFP / ATTA KENARE)”
Prices are rising… well, what would one expect. People are being killed. Now the ‘black rain‘ over Tehran is another step towards destruction. The region going up in flames. The country scarred already and becoming another Iraq…?
It’s good to see that they are starting to act again, NATO, EU: ‘Trump’s war’ is not his doing alone, of course.
As a ‘figure head’ he ‘works’ based on the interests behind him too: The industries, most importantly the one producing weapons. The population, who as a majority depend on their ‘way of life’, namely cars for moving across country in the USA, with cheapest prices of all… they trust that any president will observe this concept, this idea, and the government will take care of petrol.
War is no heroic deed of people doing the good thing. War is not only a ‘costly affair’… it always is part of a framework of interests and needs of those in power, those with money and those with ulterior motives. Such goals are not always easy to ‘dig down to’, define.
In the news we usually get the actual event. What we need to do is more reading, to get at the facts behind the ‘images’. Reliable sources. Remember that news have statements in them, which in turn are based on interests and needs and – very often also on diplomacy.
What also helps to understand the ‘goings-on’ behind the scenes, the real motives, is this age-old concept:
“Cui bono?” – “Who benefits?”
If you ask that about anything, it will get you farther in understanding.
This is no ‘piece of cake’, especially not for those being killed and wounded every day. Being scarred for life by health risks and cruelty and greed.
We need to prove that the international community is stronger holding out against one or another country and their selfish, incompetent and greedy ‘potentates’.
Images licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics, no AI involved
The president of the USA, Donald Trump, is a criminal ruled guilty on 34 counts of bribery and corruption as well as molestation before a regular court of law of the US. At the same time ‘leader’ of one of the most powerful nations today, yet. War means death and destruction, always. No exceptions. None.
Landscapes and living areas are laid waste, people deprived of home and livelihood.
Although all the motives are clear and have been for decades, still the international community lets him and his administration act as if he was the only one around?
This is indeed a crime, because it’s killing people for no other reason but profit:
He and his administration cancelled the Uranium enrichment control contracts without reason. They were working, according to official reports of the IAEA at the time. They had been reached after ten years of negotiating.
Internally the reign of the Iranian government is nothing to write home about. But, about how many governments, especially the larger powers today, can you say that? China? Russia?
The US?
The USA where money is the sole defining attribute of a person. Where close to no protection for workers/employees exists to this day. Where weapons are sold to minors and people killed in the streets into the bargain, thousands each year. Where people from one day to another will lose house or home and live in cars, with their few belongings right there, searching for employment.
Now this country of Iran, whose conflicts in the area are heavily intertwined with the Israel-Palestine conflict and so many adjacent countries is supposed to be bombed back into the stone age? Just like Iraq?
Iran: A tradition and history that reach back thousands of years, far beyond Islam and its first advent?
Because the US need oil, cheap and fast? Because cars in the US have to be kept rolling, with cheap petrol, if as a president you want to stay in office?
Because the weapons’ producing industry is the largest and most powerful over there?
Where are EU, UNO and NATO these days? What if another member would do the same…? Any of them?
Russia and Putin are scorned for their attack on Ukraine, for other internal reasons. Have been so for years? And Trump does the same thing now… To cover up, too. As so often has happened throughout history: Make war on a ‘common enemy’ to distract attention from internal affairs and shortcomings.
Netanyahu of Israel was and is a well-known hardliner against Palestinian territories. He has driven Israeli settlers there for almost a decade now. He has lost the support of his own parliament as well as the majority of the people of Israel. Which is a fact even on platforms such as LinkedIn.
Stop this madness now! Start using reason again. Stop selfish, cruel and completely ruthless people such as the present president of the US and his administration.
Note 16th March 2026: Acting like the true ‘scary’ ‘deal maker‘ he has publicly declared himself to be: Trump, this sorry excuse for a man, of course, uses every lever he can get hold of. Beware, and just wait a little… Neither NATO, UNO nor EU will bow to your conditions:
You have all the oil you need…? Now…in dependence on Russian oil, for the time being… but it is only reasonable that in the long run this will not be sufficient or satisfying to an economy as dependent on oil and fossil fuels as the USA:
Rather make Iran succumb and get oil from the largest fossil fuel recovering industry in the world on the cheap… hey?
Who do you think you are fooling here…?
We all know by this time that messages in front of cameras are one thing; but often just as much marketing and boasting or pressurizing as anything…
Setting the whole of the Near East on fire – nice and calm sitting in front of screens thousands of miles away.
Some stunt.
Really…? – Rather embarrassing if it wasn’t so cruel – one is reminded of just so many boys playing at tin soldiers…
He seems not to know even himself what he is aiming at. Only yesterday in front of the world’s cameras he said it in so many words. Yet, it is abundantly clear that all of this is just another desperate attempt to divert attention from his problems in regard to internal affairs and his criminal record.
A person like the Secretary of Defense of the USA, Hegseth, even has the unspeakable impertinence to state: ~’no politically correct war; no UNO mission, no plans for the time after. Just plain war.’
A ripe pair.
Two of a kind.
The conflicts between Israel and Palestine and the additional forces stationed in the north and the south, the Guerilla troops of Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as the ‘support’ by the USA:
They are decades old!
Anyone with an atom of reason and smartness would have shied away from such a stupid and cruel step.
But someone like the present president in the US lacks that. What he is interested in is his own position, his power and – the future power in the US.
His affinity for Putin and his love of a dictatorship that allows him unbridled power and say-so without any limitations are legendary.
The New York Times as well as the Washington Post* (when it still was independent) reported on both these facts:
The Pulitzer Prize committee’s information on awarding the prize to both newspapers regarding the connection and election influence in 2016 here.
Trump initiated the storming of the Capitol in January 2021.
He was ruled guilty in front of a US court on 34 counts of bribery, corruption and molestation.
The current Israel president Netanyahu has suffered from lack of support of his ‘subjects’ and the parliament as such for his cruel politics towards Palestinian territories, the Gaza strip and West Bank, going on for almost a decade now.
At this point his actions that started this escalation are another desperate attempt to keep his position as long as possible.
In this respect it is no surprise too, that the talks to Trump were not public and also not disclosed in any way.
The weapons’ industry in the US is the largest and most powerful. Previous presidents were pressurized and even murdered because they tried to limit their profits. (J.F. Kennedy being the most prominent.)
This war is outrageous, it is exactly the same type of action that Putin reverted to when attacking Ukraine, according to international law.
These attacks have to stop!
It will just lay the whole region to waste and land it in a war for years to come.
When we take all these facts together, and use that age-old principle of ‘cui bono?‘, ‘who benefits?‘, some things become abundantly clear.
Shame on such a government as the present US presidential administration.
* The Washington Post since not only was acquired by Jeff Bezos, amazon founder and Trump follower, it also recently suffered a big reduction of staff.
For decades people were careful about and on the Near East struggle for peace and some sort of peaceful coexistence. And here comes a president raised in a military academy, West Point, and imagines that you just ‘hit them hard’ and as a surprise in order to succeed fast.
Yet again the 2nd World War comes to mind; Napoleon even. All of these “would-be kings without kingdom” who strike out for the sole reason of satisfying a (too small…?) ego and causing endless years of pain, death and more struggle.
You learn from history and try to do better! Not the other way around.
Half the Near East is going up in flames at the moment – and no wonder, too: Palestinians’ and Israelis’ issues, made even worse by someone like Netanyahu, of course are directly involved in this: The south as well as the northern borders of Israel historically have been ‘bridge heads’ also for decades of soldiers and Guerilla warriors supporting Palestinians.
Israel on the other hand is under strong protection from the USA, also for historical reasons.
If you come to think of it, though constantly fighting, some sort of ‘justice’ seems included… every party in this dreadful, ongoing conflict represented.
But these also are age-old historical truths:
Cruelty, force, will propagate itself: Make war and you will get more war.
A leader of state, be that a king or a dictator or a president, will try to divert attention from internal issues; making a war is a very old and well-loved method for that.
Additionally, a ‘legacy’ of a reign, a presidency, also can be something to aim at: To be remembered for something; preferably something worth mentioning at least for some years.
All of the above are bitter truths in this case: A president called Trump, with a criminal record and sad past of corruption, bribery and fraud trying to ‘cover up’.
I am glad that I live in a democracy where I can say and write what I think. I am grateful too.
The only thing I wish more for the people in Iran than that kind of freedom and human rights is peace in that region. Peaceful coexistence finally.
Because instead of killing more people into the bargain, some leaders start finally ‘doing their homework’.
It is clear to anyone who follows politics closely: Mr Trump, President of the USA, is desperate. Nothing else explains the behaviour towards Iran: The USA are even historically famous for their need of oil. Of fossil fuels.
The economy in the USA is failing and has been for years just as it has everywhere else. The pandemic has taken its toll.
The weapons’ industry in the USA is the most powerful of all. When you don’t make war, you don’t need to produce weapons.
That’s why wars are so ‘profitable’: The president profits from the ‘noise’ and news around apparent enemies that have to be fought. No one will look at his criminal record anymore. (Link to New York Times article.)
The industry producing weapons also profits: The storage spaces will be lightened of their ‘burden’ and new weapons have to be bought.
With the tax payers’ money, to boot. And the soldiers that might die?
Let them not fool us: Iran’s internal politics are cruel and brutal towards their population, against human rights and especially those of women.
But this is not about Iran’s population: This is about its oil and the power and the money. It’s between Iran and the USA.
Later, March 1st 2026: What will happen, if a new government actually would be instated in Iran that of course would be cheek by jowl with the US? For decades the Palestinians had to try and hold their ground. Ground that was originally theirs to keep as per agreements after the founding of Israel.
What will happen to Iran itself? A copy of Western civilisations, with the values and particular ways gone…?
What will happen to its oil and the USA’s needs…?
Hopefully enough people will start thinking about this early. The factions inside and outside of Iran are even now distinctly discernible.
Let’s hope that a fate like that of Iraq will be spared them. Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein had been supported for decades by the USA as well. They even helped him getting ‘up’. When he started to become too independent, his fate was sealed.
Images from the movie’s webpage and licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics – Documentary by John Houston, award-winning director, “Le There Be Light“, 1946
When you look into news and messages you will find that around war there still is a sort of halo or glow being created: As if it actually was about heroes, about being brave and strong and resilient in the face of adversity.
It’s not. It’s a means to an end. Sometimes more than one end.
Oil. Power. Money. … You name it.
Especially in these days, where more than half the world is online and rather better educated than ever before. Patterns of human behaviour are age-old and they repeat. But war is young in history, compared. And that’s a fact, stated by scientists and archaeologists of long standing.
Think of the hundreds of thousands of years that humans have been part of this planet.
Around ten thousand years are a pea on a hot plate in that respect.
There are a few very easy to follow arguments that support this view:
People who come back from war, alive, are scarred in their feelings and emotions, their souls, for the rest of their lives. One proof of that fact is shown with widely recognized precision and compassion in the documentary from 1946, created by John Houston about WW II soldiers, coming back.
But also in former times soldiers who came back would behave differently. Would be uneasy in everyday life and often become furious at any little thing. Turn to be alcoholics. The reports are legend. In literature and in chronicles.
In other words: If war was so natural, would people mind?
Again:
Conflicts are natural. Wars are not!
We can resolve conflicts, if we really want to, because there’s always another road.
Destroy Iran’s nuclear programme to build nuclear weapons…? Helloooo…? Remember the times – of Trump’s first stay in office?
Did you forget that it was Trumpwho cancelled the contracts with Iran on controlling Uranium enrichment that had been reached with all concerned after more than ten (10!) years of negotiating?
Are Netanyahu and Trump now completely out of their minds?????
This region has seen so much suffering, so much death, destruction and killing – unbelievable! For money alone. Oil. Power. Nothing else.
In Los Angeles already we see that apparently Trump has taken Hollywood movies and his upbringing in a military school (school…???) to heart:
Just bring out the troops and call the attack…???
Shame on you all!!!
Mr Donald Trump, I need to ask this here and directly: “How old are you anyway?” The 12-year-old launching his army of toy soldiers, playing at hero games?
It would be ridiculous in almost all other cases.
It stares you in the face that this is just one of those cover-ups, cruel, useless, heartless and mean.
Both of them have ample need to cover up for other misdeeds, problems or, in Trump’s case, actual crimes: Bribery, sexual coercion, corruption – and he has been ruled guilty on 34 counts in front of a legal court of law of the US!
In this case I would spit in your faces should you ever have the luck to meet me in person.
Shame, shame, shame!
Author’s note: It should be clear from all my writing on these subjects that I aim at a carefully researched and as far as possible clear as well as judicious view.
I do not think that at this point especially, any of the parties concerned in this war, conflict which seems a eulogism really, could be called ‘not guilty’, innocent.
Do cut this short, it’s like this, people:
Whatever your colour, creed or conviction, you are not supposed to kill, torture or molest other people. Period.
2nd Author’s note: We all know that the first thing to die in a war is the truth. Don’t let them fool you. Use all the reliable sources you get. And remember to differentiate between what has been published – and what we sometimes learn years later. Therefore, think of that old principle:
Cui bono? Who benefits?
3rd Author’s Note: The history of this war is long. And Netanyahu, as I have recorded elsewhere already, from his first day in national politics there was known as a so-called hardliner. In Israel itself!
There that is short for those people advocating a cold and hard dealing with anything Palestinian. They, Netanyahu especially, do systematically send Israeli settlers into Gaza. Netanyahu has done so for many years and thus has driven the situation to breaking point.
That the Hamas is not to be excused for those recent cruelties and murders of hostages I mention to make it clear again. It should be a matter of course.
Once more:
Modern wars especially, always had long stretches of time before actual military actions started that would have allowed to negotiate for truces – and eventually peace.
The Iranian alleged programme for Uranium enrichment to build nuclear weapons for many years was meant for peaceful use only.
Trump already during his first stay in office cancelled those contracts that had been reached after more than 10 years negotiating! (s.a. above)
Iran during its long history due to its rich soil and huge natural resources of oil and gas has been target of all the ‘super-powers’ for more than 200 years, be that Russia, or France or Britain in the early days. Or the Soviet Union, France again and the USA in later times.
In Iran they have enough reason to fear attacks.
When we look at the Israeli secret service, the Mossad, we see that it is one of the most far reaching of all of them.
Every other secret service has learned from them. Too.
As a German I was raised with awe and at the same time a huge sense of responsibility to prevent such things happening again, extreme right-wing politics taking power here in Germany.
The Holocaust is a dreadful and cruel sign of human potential for baseness.
Yet, what also has become clear, is the fact that such baseness is human – and can be found anywhere in the world.
These recent attacks and the recent history of this war are one proof of many for that.
Two things also stand out almost like a big swelling on the human forehead:
Whatever your colour, creed or conviction, you are not supposed to kill, torture or bother other people. Period.
War is not a destiny! War is man-made – and can be prevented – if the weapon industry is for it…
Addition: One voice of very many more from Israel itself can be found on LinkedIn, screenshot taken at 2025-06-15 06-13-06, local time:
Screenshot taken on LinkedIn on 2025-06-15 06-13-06, local time (UTC+1).
