Something’s righteous in Denmark.
The Danes, who have owned Greenland since 1380, are contrasting the cartography of their island with maps of Iran. Straits flow on the western border of both territories, with Middle East oil going through the Strait of Hormuz, which hugs Iran, and Alaskan Cod making their way through the Davis Strait. Having weathered Donald Trump’s saber-rattling threats of invasion for a year, the Danes are tickled to keep the price of fish oil stable.
When George Bush attacked Iraq in 2003, I reminded readers of this opinion page that Harry Truman, applying show-me common sense, resisted the hawks who urged him to invade China in the early 1950s.
Back then I hoped to convey the general modesty and down-to-earth pragmatism of a country upbringing by quoting a man from Missouri. Just after taking the presidential oath of office, upon the sudden death of Franklin Rosevelt, Harry told his former senate colleagues “Fellas, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a load of hay fall on you, but I feel like the moon and stars have fallen on me.”
Square bail hay bailing is largely a thing of the past, but deer hunting is still with us. In my opinion, the hunt offers an apropos real time analogy.
This fall, many deer hunters will take to the woods and some will introduce youngsters to the hunt. Parents and elders will instill age-old rustic rules. The young hunters will be told to keep their safeties engaged until their quarry is at hand. They will once again hear a sound warning, “Don’t just shoot at the swaying brush, make eye contact with your target.”
Donald Trump shot the swaying brush when he attacked Iran. He has wounded the wind.
This statement opened with a feeble allusion to the Shakespearian play Hamlet, a character who had trouble making up his mind. Historians will have trouble analyzing the first years of the second term of Trump’s presidency. They will have to figure out what is worse, weakening your nation by threatening to attack friends or strengthening enemies through a half-baked attack.
I disagree with the pundits who suggest that the president thinks of himself as a king. Donald Trump’s self image is closer to that of an Egyptian Pharaoh, who would have taken himself to be “Semi-divine”.
Please, apply show-me skepticism to my assertion, but when the president puts a golden ballroom or a Trumpian Arlington Arch above the homeward aspirations of his people, think “pyramid” for a moment. When he demands praise for ending a war he didn’t need to start, think “hieroglyphics”, a language incomprehensible to the matter-of-fact American who refuses to be a fool.
Sincerely,
Jesse Laurentius
