Schwab: War is serious and deadly; Trump, Hegseth aren’t serious
Published 1:30 am Friday, March 13, 2026
By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist
Five-star Gen. Omar Bradley, hero of WWII, first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote: “Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead.”
When it was learned that 168 Iranian schoolgirls and 14 teachers were killed in the initial bombing attacks in Iran, Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lied. They kept lying until video revealed a Tomahawk missile, used there only by the U.S., hitting adjacent buildings, pieces of it found in the schoolyard. “I didn’t know enough about it,” explained the commander-in-chief.
John Neely Kennedy, MAGA senator from Louisiana whose questioning of Kristi Noem may have led to her firing, didn’t lie, saying “We made a mistake.” Good for him. He’s self-importantly smug, but “blind squirrels” and all that.
Trump and Hegseth don’t guilt. They gloat. Said Hegseth: “We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.” And: “The only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they’re going to live.” When Trump finished announcing his war, unpresidential in a white “USA” baseball cap, he went golfing. Since then he’s made manly remarks like, “It’s fun to sink ships.” And, about casualties, “Before it ends, that’s the way it is.” The human costs of war mean nothing to them; it’s all about flaunting power. As proof, Trump essentially ended a Pentagon program studying ways to prevent civilian casualties. His wars don’t accept accountability. Nothing in his administration does.
He wore that disrespectful hat again at Dover AFB, when receiving coffins of his war dead. That was too much even for Fox “news,” which showed footage not of that event but of one where he wasn’t standing under the hat. It’s me, it’s me, he’d said. Not this time, they said, later apologizing for their deception.
I spent a year in a combat zone, dodging rockets (all but one), caring for troops injured physically and mentally. War is horrible, righteous or not. It reveals humankind’s most damnable imperfections, its worst failures. Innocents die, survivors are ruined, combatants, too. In a democracy, we should demand that leaders who take our country to war reflect that seriousness and care about the consequences. For Trump and Hegseth to do so, they’d have to lie. If congressional Republicans feel it, they conceal it convincingly.
Instead, having handed control to a lifelong liar, a psychically-wounded malignant narcissist who makes everything only about himself, who craves praise and manufactures it when he doesn’t get it, who made leader of our Department of Don’t-Say-War a third-string propagandist talk show host, we must watch their unseemly braggadocio, embarrassed and worried. Plus their despicable posting on social media of video promoting their war with scenes from macho movies and martial video games. Titled “Justice The American Way.” This is their thinking, sending America to war.
When Bush the Second invaded Iraq, a brother-in-law, a Marine and fellow Vietnam veteran who’d been in it much deeper than me, called to share feelings about war. Anyone who’s been there in person would think about Trump’s, even if supporting it: sad for everyone involved, remembering. Five-time-deferred, bone-spur-fabricating Trump can’t even fake it. He’s besotted with power. “People are loving what’s happening,” he said. “Cuba’s going to fall, too.” And “Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela.” King of the world. In response, Iran chose Khamenei’s son.
Ever-changing reasons for the war Trump and his henchfolk have offered might also include the riches his sons will collect from their investments in a drone-making company, to which their daddy just awarded a multi-million dollar contract. (But, but, Hunter Biden!!) At the very least, Americans who support the war for any reason ought to want more from their leaders than their frat-boy, chest-bumping, high-fivin’ white-guy (historic reference) behavior. The financial and security effects are worse, but those displays are loathsome.
It’s increasingly obvious how poorly the Trump administration thought through the aftermath of their initial strike. They expected immediate capitulation by the Iranians, and made no plans — hadn’t even considered the need — for evacuating Americans from the region. (Jody Allen sent the Seahawks plane.) Had they imagined — which would have required thinking beyond Trump’s signature shallowness — that Iran might respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz, they would have taken steps to prevent it and its subsequent worldwide havoc. That’s the price of electing a walking psych textbook who chooses advisers based not on qualification but on unquestioning genuflection.
Finally, a housekeeping note. Many readers find my tinyurls annoying. Their use derives from my blogging, where I can hot-link words to sources, non-disruptively. So, fighting temptation, I’ve provided none here. If asked for verification, I’ll happily comply. I don’t make stuff up. Except for the occasional word.
Also finally: I’ll miss Jon Bauer, the Herald’s moving-on editorial page editor. The community will, too. He’s been great to work with. Happy trails to him. And to The Herald.
Email Sid Schwab at columnsid@gmail.com.
