The Deadly Danger of Careless People

Now they want $200 billion more for their reckless adventures

Like The Great Gatsby’s Tom and Daisy, these are careless people. (Photo by Al Drago via Getty Images)

When war zealot Pete Hegseth was asked yesterday about a proposed Pentagon request for $200 billion to supplement its war in Iran, he said, “Obviously, it takes money to kill bad guys.”

Bad guys. Tell that to the Iranian families grieving over the murder of their daughters or siblings after the U.S. military bombed their elementary school. Tell that to the thousands of civilians that have died so far. That’s not the language you use if you recognize your moral—indeed human—responsibilities.

When Donald Trump was asked yesterday about the $200 billion, he said, “This is a very volatile world…We want to have vast amounts of ammunition. It’s a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy-top.”

Tippy-top. You understand that he’s talking about money to kill people and destroy things. That’s not the language a serious person would ever use.

There’s a famous, oft-repeated quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby that’s frequently (and accurately) used to describe Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. But the same quote is appropriate to describe another couple, Donald and Pete. It goes like this:

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

This is the reason why a healthy democratic society depends on an informed and educated electorate to make good decisions about who should lead their country. This is especially critical in a country with the wealth and power of the United States—and a military with more resources than the next nine countries combined.

This regime—especially the president and the defense secretary—is capable of deploying lethal force to commit terrible, unspeakable damage. As we are learning day after day, these murderous men have the power to decide who lives and dies.

We need leaders who recognize the gravity of their decision to send Americans into harm’s way and risk the lives of innocent civilians. That also includes the seriousness to think through the consequences of their actions rather than feeding their short-sighted hunger to blow things up and their sickeningly childish excitement in killing “bad guys.”

Here’s how The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum smartly put it this week:

He does not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and impulse, and when he changes his mind—when he feels new whims and new impulses—he simply lies about whatever he said or did before.

It was stunning to learn that Trump and Hegseth spent $5.5 billion on munitions in the first two days of the war. After six days, the total cost had risen to over $12.7 billion, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. That total is comprised of $11.3 billion for munitions, $1.4 billion for combat losses and damage to infrastructure, and $26.5 million for operations costs.

Think about what this says about the priorities of these careless people. As The Guardian reports, drawing on data from the National Priorities Project, the $12.7 billion spent during the first six days could have funded Medicaid for 3.6 million children, medical care for 693,000 veterans, 1.5 million public housing units and the salaries of nearly half of the country’s firefighters and nine percent of elementary school teachers in America.

But we already knew that serving the well-being of everyday Americans is of little interest to these guys—not when they can spend our tax dollars blowing up people and stuff in a war of choice without justification, authorization or public support. Let’s not forget that Republicans had no problem passing their big ugly bill last year that cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP food assistance over the next decade.

Hegseth has already hedged his bets on landing the $200 billion, saying yesterday, “I think that number could move.” And there just might be enough reluctance in Congress, even among some Republicans, to stop this virtual blank check to fund this and other wars (including the plunderer Trump’s desire to “take Cuba”).

As Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper soberly noted, “That’s money that we don’t have,” while talking about the need for universal healthcare coverage, universal pre-K and free school meals. That’s the kind of thing that leaders say who recognize their responsibility to the well-being of Americans.

Meanwhile, the deadly unserious Donald Trump—foolishly handed the keys to the Oval Office by over 77 million U.S. voters—had a typically frivolous quip to explain the need for $200 billion more dollars for his reckless adventure. Lacking a real justification for his newfound pleasure in war, he carelessly reverted to humor about the most serious of matters: “It’s a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy-top.”

Just another sign that Trump is out of his mind, lacks the capacity to grasp the pain and suffering—the death and destruction—that he’s causing and relishes his ability to hold the whole world hostage while he alone decides when he’s done blowing up people and things.

Trump may fantasize about the Iranian regime agreeing to “unconditional surrender,” followed by a victory parade in America for his great achievement. But the violent realities of what he has unleashed will play out in the lives of millions in the region for years to come.

It will take all of us to clean up the mess he and his kowtowing band of miscreants has made, at home and abroad. That’s when this careless chapter—driven by cruel and weak men and women who have failed their duty to the Constitution, morality and justice—is ended with honest public servants responding to the actual needs of the American people.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $50 a year or just $5 a month, if you’re not already. This helps sustain and expand the independent journalism of America, America, keep nearly all the content free for everyone and give you full access to the comments sections.