A Reckoning, &c.

On Iran and Israel; Trump and the military; Fred Astaire and rap; and more

Attacks by Israel on Tehran, June 13, 2025 (Mehr News Agency)

For decades now, I have heard about the octopus. (I have heard about it from at least one Arab head of state, by the way.) Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad? They are mere tentacles. The head is in Tehran. To deal with the octopus, you must deal with the head.

One of the great questions of our time has been: Would a nuclear Iran be deterrable? The way the Soviet Union was, the way China is? Some say yes, some say no. Some of us have said: Better not to test the question, regardless.

Associated with deterrence is MAD, i.e., Mutual Assured Destruction. “If you killed a lot of ours, we would kill a lot of yours.” Bernard Lewis, the late Middle East historian, emphasized a point: For Iran’s rulers, mass death—meaning the mass death of Iranians—would not be a deterrent; it would be an inducement.

Always, there are risks of action. But there are risks of inaction too. People tend to think about the risks of action. But leaders must weigh those other risks as well.

The story is told of a man who survived the Holocaust and was asked, “What is the greatest lesson you have learned in recent years?” He answered, “When someone says he wants to kill you, believe him.” Iran has been more than clear about its desire concerning Israel.

The Iranian revolution of 1979 ushered in multiple evils. The fall of that regime would offer widespread hope—for Iranians, for Israelis, for all of us.

***

Last month, President Trump delivered the commencement address at West Point. He did so in a MAGA hat—a partisan symbol. I thought this was wrong (to say nothing of the speech itself).

Two and a half weeks later, the president spoke at Fort Bragg. I will quote an article in Military.com:

It was supposed to be a routine appearance, a visit from the commander in chief to rally the troops, boost morale and celebrate the Army’s 250th-birthday week . . .

Instead, what unfolded Tuesday at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, bore little resemblance to the customary visit from a president and defense secretary. There, President Donald Trump unleashed a speech laced with partisan invective . . .

As he talked, says the article, Trump was “blurring the long-standing and sacrosanct line between the military and partisan politics.” That is a good line, in my judgment: a line not to cross, blur, or erase.

Moreover, I think a president ought to be “president of all the people.” (That is really old-fashioned. Practically quaint now.) The current president has been known to speak of “our voters” or “our people.” He is not talking about Americans as a whole.

Earlier this year, I had occasion to look up what Bush 41 said on Election Night 1988. Here is some of it:

“I mean to be a president of all the people, and I want to work for the hopes and interests not only of my supporters but of the governor’s and of those who didn’t vote at all.”

(By “the governor’s,” Bush meant the supporters of the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis.)

Bush continued:

“To those who supported me: I will try to be worthy of your trust. And to those who did not: I will try to earn it, and my hand is out to you, and I want to be your president, too.”

Mores, customs, norms. The older I get, the more I appreciate them (so long as they’re sound). That’s part of conservatism, no doubt.

***

An article from the Associated Press is headed “Republican enthusiasm for Musk cools after his feud with Trump, a new AP-NORC poll finds.” I thought of a tweet issued by the Republicans of the House Judiciary Committee in October 2022. It posited a kind of trinity. The tweet, in its entirety, said, “Kanye. Elon. Trump.”

Maybe they’re down to one now?

(The House Judiciary Republicans deleted their tweet. To read an article about this, go here.)

***

A day or two ago, King Charles issued knighthoods and damehoods. Becoming a dame was Pat Barker, a novelist. I loved the below section of an AP report:

Barker, 82, known for “The Regeneration Trilogy,” said she thought the letter announcing her damehood was from “really angry” tax authorities.

“Nobody else does that kind of quality of paper,” she said. “I still sort of had to read the first paragraph several times before it sank in.”

***

Violeta Chamorro, a leading figure in one of the great dramas of our time, has died at 95. To read her obituary in the New York Times, go here. She was elected president of her country, Nicaragua, in 1990. She ushered in a democratic period (since reversed, spectacularly). Her husband, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, had been the editor of La Prensa, the newspaper that opposed the dictatorship of the Somozas. He was assassinated in 1978. One of their children is Carlos Fernando Chamorro, also a journalist (now exiled in Costa Rica). I recorded a podcast with him last year. Here is the opening exchange:

I would like to know, right off the bat: How is your mother?

She is in fragile health. She is now in Costa Rica. She is in a condition of paralysis and unable to talk. She has been like that for five years. I like to think she can listen. So I sing to her, I tell her of my love.

God bless Doña Violeta and her family.

***

I would like to recommend an article by Caroline Bergonia, of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. It’s about her Cuban-refugee grandfather, and his idea of America. A good one. (Both the article and the grandfather.)

***

You want to know an early rap? A rap—like a rap song—avant la lettre? Well, there’s the opening of Meredith Willson’s Music Man. But there’s also a bit from Second Chorus, a 1940 movie starring Fred Astaire and Paulette Goddard. “Do you dig me, Jack?”

(One day, we will talk about why Astaire is the No. 1 entertainer in the history of show business, and Johnny Carson No. 2.) (This is purely subjective, mind you.)

***

Brian Wilson, of the Beach Boys, has died at 82. He left us, among other songs, “Good Vibrations.” In 1992, the King’s Singers put out an album of pop songs—marvelous album. It’s called Good Vibrations. And the title song is here.

Really gets into one’s blood . . .

***

In “olden times,” peddlers would often sharpen your knives and scissors and whatnot. They would do this from their wagons, out on the plains. Would you like to see a modern-day equivalent, on the streets of Manhattan (New York, not Kansas)?

Thank you so much for joining me today, my friends. If you’d like to drop me a line, the address is mail@jaynordlinger.com. Catch you soon.