VETERANS DAY AND A TONE-DEAF PRESIDENT November 13, 2026
Two days before Veterans Day, Donald Trump again hailed himself as a military genius and revealed his ignorance of history.
Trump basically announced that (for now) the United States is walking away from our war with Iran. Oil (mostly) is transiting the Strait of Hormuz. No American military lives have been lost in months. Iran will not get a nuclear weapon. (Says who?) Wednesday, he removed Vice President Vance from negotiating a formal resolution.
Trump also boasted that his leadership provided victory in a 42-minute war against Venezuela. U.S. special operations forces captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. America controls Venezuela’s oil. The oil companies are making record profits. Billions of dollars are flowing into America’s coffers.
What Trump didn’t say: When the Iran war began on February 28, the United States battered Iran, but (ultra-) hardliners came to the fore. Regional allies have taken hits while Iran has weaponized the Strait of Hormuz.
Our Venezuela gambit? Not a war but a kidnapping and a virtual seizure of a sovereign nation’s most valuable assets.
Lacking perspective, Trump boasted how few American lives were lost in the Iran war (23). This pales in comparison to our losses in Korea (52,000), Vietnam (58,000), Afghanistan (1,800) and Iraq (3,400).
Trump’s delusion relates to apples and cucumbers.
The United States, along with United Nations allies, put boots on the ground in Korea. About 1.8 million Americans served there. In Vietnam, 2.7 million U.S. troops advised and fought with a high of 535,000 present in 1968. During the 2007 surge in Iraq, 170,000 troops were in-country. In 2010, the U.S. troop level in Afghanistan reached 100,000. Those wars lasted for years. Many American personnel served multiple tours.
The Iran war has been far different. No American troops set foot on Iranian soil. Yes, combat search and rescue teams, along with special ops forces, thankfully rescued two airman after their F-15E was downed. But our “slim” losses mainly occurred at U.S. bases in the Gulf. For Trump, 23 fatalities is a throw-away number. Not so if one of the troops killed was your husband or wife, father or mother, son or daughter, sister or brother, relative or friend.
Many Americans are aware enough to see through Trump’s bluster. This enabled Democrats to win impressive midterm majorities in the House and Senate. But younger people with no knowledge of the Korean and Vietnam wars, and maybe little of Afghanistan and Iraq, need to know the truth.
All that said, Americans observed Veterans Day on November 11. Well, some Americans. Most never served in our military and give little thought to what our service members go through in both war and peace. Sure, there are perks. Service members learn crucial skills, even in the infantry. Healthcare is covered. You can take advantage of educational benefits. And you can retire at two-thirds pay after twenty years, three-quarters after thirty.
Still, many military families struggle with the high cost of living, disruptive moving from base to base and long deployments overseas. Critically, everyone in our volunteer military understands that they always face potential danger. Still, they serve.
So here’s to everyone who wears or has worn the uniform. Thanks for stepping up for our nation.
If only your draft-dodging commander-in-chief was worthy of you.
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My father enlisted in the US Navy in 1944, after he graduated from Caltech. In typical military style, he was then sent to a series of training programs — midshipmen’s school, radio school, officer training — emerging as an ensign in late-1945. He was assigned to a destroyer escort in the Pacific and was somewhere in the vicinity of Okinawa when I was born the following March. I still have the telegram he got letting him know he was a father.
Of course, when he enlisted, he had no idea the war would be over before he actually got on a ship. At that point, American and Allied forces were island-hopping in three waves across the northern, central and southern Pacific in a series of brutal battles on their way to what everyone believed would be an invasion of the Japanese home islands. Projected casualties for the invasion were in the hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians. Hiroshima and Nagasaki — as horrifying as they were — put an end to the invasion plan.
(Parenthetical note that just occurred to me: My mother could not have been thrilled. Before she met my father, she had been briefly married to an airman who was killed in a training accident. The thought of a second husband going off to war must have terrified her.)
My dad was proud of his service, and I used to call to wish him a happy Veterans Day. I wish I could have done that this year.
My salute to your dad, David.