Donald Trump has launched a “war of choice” — Orwell would love that term — on Iran, killing Ayatollah Khamanei and 200 or more others, by latest report. The US has acted with Israel and no others, and Trump and his administration have never made any effort to justify the attack. George W. Bush’s development of a “coalition of the willing” to attack Iraq looks, ill-informed as it was, like brilliant statesmanship in contrast. As Joe Cirincione says in The New Republic, “This is not how democracies go to war; it’s how dictators do.“

There is no question that Iranians live in a repressive regime and that they want change. The demonstrations, undertaken at risk of freedom, life, and property, are clear evidence of that. But anyone who thinks that our actions — or rather, Trump’s actions undertaken in our name — are truly directed to democratization of Iran on behalf of Iranians is fantasizing. In truth, we are all essentially being dragged into the fantasies of Donald J. Trump. See Robin Wright’s excellent piece in The New Yorker for more.

Timothy Snyder has an excellent post about this, arguing that Trump is driven by two things: using war as a path to controlling the November election and solidifying his financial opportunities with Iran-opposed nations such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen. I would add that the Donald absolutely wants to protect his potential investments in his “Gaza solution” — his vision for a Monaco on the Mediterranean in the Gaza Strip, to which he has devoted his “Board of Peace” (another term Orwell would appreciate).

Meanwhile, Congress is in sycophancy or sleepwalk, depending on party. And the news media, too. We cannot afford to be waylaid by the details of what is happening on the ground in Iran, by our military strategy, by success on the ground, or even by the bravery of our men and women in uniform. Whatever else this military action is, it is another instrument in Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy.