What the F*%k!!!

Those were the first words out of my mouth last Saturday when I heard that the United States had joined Israel in starting a war with Iran. 

Why would the president that brags about all the wars he’s already stopped, and all the wars he is going to stop, actually start a war of his own? Didn’t he promise us he wouldn’t do such a thing?  And why would he announce it to the world dressed so casually and in a nonchalant tone mention that Americans were going to die?  

You can rest assured that his children, his family members, and his friends at Mar-A-Lago aren’t going to die in this war.  But you know many of his MAGA voters’ children, family members, and friends will.  And of those who don’t die, many will come back severely injured and most will come back with mental trauma.

Fact checkers have documented tens of thousands of lies from this administration.  Are we supposed to believe him now?  Do we believe that we had to get involved in a military conflict with Iran at this very minute?  Or should we believe the claim from Oman’s foreign minister who said that a negotiated agreement was within reach and that military action wasn’t going to be needed? 

The writing was on the wall when they changed the name from the Department of Defense to the Department of War. Under the leadership of drunken talking head Pete Hegseth, the United States military shot down a border patrol drone and a party balloon near El Paso.  

If their intelligence was that bad then, do we have faith in their judgement now?  We bombed an Iranian school killing at around 100 people, at least 80 of them were schoolgirls.  I pray that was just bad intelligence and that we didn’t mean to do that.

Did the President listen to Hegseth instead of the head of his Joint Chief’s of Staff Dan Caine?  General Caine warned Trump about the dangers of going to war with Iran. He pointed out that it could be a long, drawn-out conflict with no clear-cut definition of what a victory would look like. 

I spoke with Kishla Askins a Democrat who is running for her party’s nomination in the race to fill Don Bacon’s congressional seat. Like Bacon, Askins has a long proud military record. She has been in combat zones in the middle east. She agrees that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a bad guy and that many in Iran will celebrate that he’s gone.  But warns that regime change hasn’t worked in other places and has doubts it will work in Iran.  She warned of possible sleeper terrorist cells in our country that might be awakened by this action. She deserves serious consideration on primary day. 

I wonder if instead of listening to his head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President listened to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instead. Netanyahu is a man who desperately needs to have a war to stay in power.  Does President Trump think that getting us in a war will help keep him in power as well? 

The thought of getting us into a war to cancel the midterm elections isn’t such a far-fetched idea. 

There is already a draft of a 17-page executive order put together by a group of President Trump’s supporters that claims if a national emergency is declared, the President could cancel the midterms.  

The Republicans under President Trump have tried to gerrymander states and suppress voter turnout to try to avoid a disastrous outcome for their party in November.  If the polling is to be believed, it looks like that might not be enough to get the results they want. 

President Trump is desperate not to be impeached. If the Dem’s get control of the house, there’s a good chance he will.  Trump instigated an attack on the Capitol on January 6th to try to stay in power. Does he think instigating a war with Iran will succeed where January 6th failed?

I don’t know if this military attack will bring peace to the middle east or make the problems worse.  I do know that I find myself saying the Serenity Prayer a lot since Trump returned into office.  Asking God for the wisdom to know the difference between what I can and can’t control does seem to help. 

But every now and then something big like this happens and you just have to shout WHAT THE F*%K!!

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.