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In the irrational, chaotic mind of Donald Trump Iran is now the enemy of the day that must be attacked. Last month it was Venezuela that was the grave threat to our national security and the target of the day.

Before that the saber rattling was all about China. The American empire must always have an enemy. We must continuously hype the fear of some imagined bogeyman.

The news media is reporting a U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf, including two aircraft carrier groups, land-based aircraft, in-air refueling planes and drones. The current administration is preparing to launch another bombing attack on Iran.

Last June Trump ordered an illegal attack on Iran that he said, “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.

So why is Iran’s nuclear program a threat now? Could it be we were lied to?

Once again we are marching toward another disastrous “war of choice.” The fools and profiteers are repeating the lies about “weapons of mass destruction,” the country’s leaders being “evil” and our country having “no choice” but to take military action.

Through the centuries there have been innumerable statesmen, military leaders, historians and combat soldiers who have warned that war does not solve conflicts and it is not worth costs.

The Chinese general Sun Tzu (544 – 496 BCE) wrote, “There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare.”

General George C. Marshall (1880 – 1959), U.S. Army Chief of Staff in WW2 and Secretary of State under President Truman, said, “...I know a great deal of the horrors and tragedies of war...The cost of war in human lives...I am deeply moved to find some means or method of avoiding another calamity of war...”

WW2 Supreme Commander and President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) warned us about the military-industrial-complex. He also said, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

The clear lessons of history, from the quagmires in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, are that war is not the answer.

Mathew Wallin, an international relations expert at the American Security Project wrote, “The lessons we have learned from decades of conflict in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia should be readily apparent to America’s leadership. This country has been monumentally poor at handling the aftermath of the conflicts in which it has engaged...there’s no indication Iran will be any different...”

According to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, “Military power is the least likely instrument of national power to be successful if you decide to use it.”

Col. Wilkerson was a Vietnam combat veteran, served 31 years in the U.S. Army, and was chief of staff to Gen. Colin Powell when Powell was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and when Powell was Secretary of State.

Col. Andrew Bacevich (U.S. Army, Ret.), another Vietnam combat veteran, has written, “...the militarized approach to U.S. policy that we have been following in this region [the Middle East] for decades now: the conviction that somehow the appropriate use of American military power is going to destroy the evildoers and enable the good guys to prevail...hasn’t happened. It hasn’t worked. It won’t work.”

Andrew Bacevich is an author of numerous books on the failure of our militarized foreign policy and founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Donald Trump recently said, “I run the country and the world.”

Andrew Bacevich’s response to this arrogant statement was blunt but appropriate, “Nobody ‘runs the world’ and anyone who thinks he does is a dangerous idiot.”

“Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 158 million [today 340 million] followers, it will no longer be America.”

This statement, by Dwight D. Eisenhower, was made long before anyone heard of Donald Trump. But it fits our nation’s current debacle perfectly.

Unfortunately we have an ignorant, dangerous idiot – who never served in the military but thinks he knows more than experienced generals and foreign policy experts – in charge of the most powerful military on the planet.

What could possibly go wrong?

There is no reason to believe military action against Iran will accomplish anything positive. Like the Afghanistan war, Iran could drag on and become another quagmire. It could escalate into a regional conflict. Iran may restrict oil shipments impacting the world economy. Iran could be destabilized and sink into civil war.

Almost certainly “regime change” will not happen (and can’t without commitment of ground troops). Nor is Iran likely to capitulate to Trump’s demands.

But the war will undoubtedly kill many innocent people, cost billions, waste resources and be an environmental disaster.

“If all the privates and corporals would refuse to fight there would be no wars.” This advice is attributed to Albert Einstein.

Scott Ritter, a Gulf War veteran, Marine intelligence officer and former U.N weapons inspector in Iraq, suggests the same solution for war with Iran. He wrote on Substack, “This is the time when those men and women who wear the uniform of the United States military – especially those who have been entrusted with senior positions of authority – to do their duty by failing to execute orders which are facially illegal. And any order to attack Iran void of Congressional and Security Council authority is just that – facially illegal.”

Col. William Astore (USAF, Ret.) agrees, “We are not supposed to go to war based on presidential whims, pressure from foreign powers like Israel, corporate profits, imperial dominance, and similar imperatives. Only Congress has the power to declare war...”

Command Chief Master Sergeant Dennis Fritz (USAF Ret.) is a 28-year veteran and author of Deadly Betrayal: The Truth About Why the United States Invaded Iraq. In the book he wrote. “The Iraq War wasn’t an honest mistake. It was a calculated lie – a deadly betrayal. Our service members were used as pawns by the government to fulfill an imperialist ideology. Their sacrifice had no basis in national defense. All Americans should be outraged, and we should never let this happen again.”

History is repeating itself in Iran. When are the American people going to tell the powers that be – the bipartisan foreign policy military industrial complex – “Hell no, we won’t go!”