Reparations

The reparations Trump proposed to pay,
like Kaiser Wilhelm, humbled at Versailles,
can't make his Persian folly go away;
Iranians would pay to watch him die.
The war he'd pledged he wasn't gonna start,
now holds a dagger to his party's throat.
His coalition's poised to fall apart,
when We, the People rouse ourselves to vote.
Three dozen times, he's bragged we're at the end
a glorious success all due to him!
But Congress holds the only pow'r to spend
those billions won't be doled out at his whim.
If this is "winning", we can't bear the cost;
historians will tally this "Trump's Loss".

Waterloo

Iranians have Trump against a wall,
as midterms loom, he's got to end this fast.
Reserves of crude have nowhere left to fall,
and voters' patience isn't gonna last.
Until elections, missile strike won't cease
to drive the costs of gas and diesel higher.
The urgency is all on Trump for peace,
as Persians hold his feet in his own fire.
Our Pentagon had gamed this out before;
that Persian Gulf fits like a jacket (strait).

Our navy's ill-configured for this war,
and all Iranians need do is wait.
The reparations Trump proposed to pay
can't make mistakes this heinous go away.

humiliation

The reparations Trump agreed to pay
-- outrageously, it's far beyond his writ --
won't make the IRGC go away.
They've got him by the balls; he's in deep shit.
Elections loom; no candidate will stand
for spending that acknowledges this loss.
The country's bigger than one orange man,
and nothing justifies such grievous cost.
Humiliated by the better man
like when his daddy spanked him as a boy.
Trump's getting throat-fucked daily in Iran.
And only Putin knows what he enjoys.
Two parties, neither one is in control
and no one's speaking to our nation's soul.

new Treaty of Versailles

Iranians see leverage increase;
with passing weeks, the US mid-terms loom.
Trump's allies will be doomed if there's no peace,
and that's a world away from MoU.
The foreign war he'd sworn he wouldn't start
won't be resolve just 'cause he offers cash.
The MAGA base is apt to fall apart
if we're still paying through the nose for gas.
Humiliated in the shipping lanes,
Trump vents his wrath on Bibi in his turn.
As doomed as Putin's venture in Ukraine,
each gets to pay for everything he's burned.
'Though Congress may repudiate this cost
one must be blind to not perceive this loss.

Playing Games

Imploring Xi to shut the Persians down,
Trump grovels like a supplicant of yore.
as if Beijing 's indebted to this clown
who'd planned no exit, when he rushed to war.
Climb flights of stairs! Attend my leisure! Kneel!
Humiliation 's meted out, non stop.
It's we who must rely on Chinese steel,
while Iowans can't sell their soybean crop.
This war's unpopular, and getting worse,
as party elders feel elections loom.
Endorsed by Trump, a candidate feels cursed;
Abe Lincoln's party's got a date with Doom.
Chinese play Go, Iranians play Chess,
and both sense  we're the party in duress.

War Powers

Cambodia taught Congress to assert
what Founders designated is its role.
Before our youth bleed out on foreign dirt,
we must be clear just who is in control.
War Powers aren't Trump's to arrogate
whenever journalists call out his crimes.
Our Senate's mandate's to deliberate,
before we rush to arms, we must take time.
"EMERGENCY!" Trump bleats, 'cause Bannon'd taught
extraordinary powers can be seized
from Congress, once they're compromised, or bought,
and won't be stripping Grandpa of his keys.
Recalling history's a bitter thing
when Congress thinks it's vassal to a king.

Cry 'havoc!"

Our Pentagon gamed all this out before;
the Persian Gulf's no battlefield we'd choose.
with Persians waging asymmetric war,
most simulations show we slowly lose.
Tom Jefferson refused to pay a toll
for shipping on a common route at sea.
But Trump now put the Persians in control
where we had sent Marines to Tripoli.
Two hundred years, free shipping made us strong
and wealthier than Lydia of yore.
But Trump can't tell his public he'd been wrong;
so bid your kids farewell; they're bound for war.
What Congress hasn't weighed turns on one man
who  manifestly hasn't got a plan.

Barbary Pirates

Trump's war in Asia's setting off alarms;
the Pentagon remembers getting stuck.
Advisors all got fired who duly warned,
predictably, our servicemen get fucked.
"Advisors" Ike positioned in Saigon
then requisitioned force, by increment.
Such baleful auguries point to Iran,
where native friends are likewise impotent.
Tom Jefferson would not prevaricate;
no foreign power'd get to charge us tolls!
But Trump gave up the game in Hormuz Strait;
IRGC's now wholly in control.
Elections loom, and Teheran hangs tough
as Persian diplomats call Donald's bluff.

Those who don't know history

Our admirals know well vanRiper's game;
their fleet's deployed, but still they hesitate.
Unwilling to reprise it all the same
that awful turkey-shoot queued in the Strait.
To launch a war--if Congress doesn't mind--
takes just a momentary fit of pique.
But where Trump leads, no allies march behind;
there's none to save him drowning in his Creek.
Trump's foreign venture doesn't play at home,
where memories of wars gone wrong are strong.
This New World Order, going it alone,
is judged by Right and Left alike as 'wrong"
November third, Americans can choose
to jump this ship that's foundered at Hormuz

those who don't learn from history...

The Persians saw no way to end this fast,
once aircraft carriers loomed off their coast.
But they'll have won, if they can merely last;
come January, Trump and Friends are toast.
Each line marked 'R's a loser in this race
They'd rather drill for gas and oil at home
This whole adventure's noxious to his base;
The most corrupt regime since TeapotDome.
The war he'd threatened Kamala'd embark,
Trump launched himself without a forward thought.
So cavalier, committing in the dark
We see what mid-East donors' dollars bought.
Reprising what he hadn't learned before,
America's subsiding in Trump's war.

No Deal

The Persians have pinned Trump against a wall;
they're in no rush to cede, or even bend.
Aware of midterms coming up this Fall,
and he'll pay through the nose for war to end.
They've got the world's economy in hock
and when this crisis ends, is theirs to choose.
The global orders not built for this shock;
its lifeline's been occluded at Hormuz.
Armed Serviees delivered what they're told;
it's not for them to choose which wars to wage.
Executives intent on oil and gold

bereft of strategy, act out of rage.
A war without a rationale in sight
could toll the deathknell for the rabid Right.

Don't call it "war"

Two trillion dollars to depose Saddam
on top of countless thousands who've been killed,
left Trump's excited to be dropping bombs
and skimming padded contracts to rebuild.
That war's a "racket" Smedley Butler taught
that leaves the planet poorer than before.
But Trump discounts the things that can't be bought
There's opportunity for graft in any war!
Kharg island might be just the thing to hold,
until Iranians lay down their arms.
If they'll just buy his crypto with their gold,
their daughters need not suffer lasting harm.
Insisting that his powers are immense,
Trump tries to hide the mind-boggling expense.

Persian prospects

The Mullahs cut the internet and phone
as if a world made deaf could not react
to evidence they're in this all alone;
like al-Assad, their patron's overtaxed.
Far-scattered proxies, doing Moscow's will
from Tartus to Caracas, and beyond
won't push on like they're underwritten still;
that stream of funds had been the only bond.
Transparency sustains democracy;
in darkness, counting votes would be a joke.
The underpinning of theocracy
is always violence, and fear, and smoke.
Two generations since Pahlavi fled
the price is on the Ayatollah's head.

the piper will be paid

The gold reserves are finite, when they're spent,
his bankers won't hold any cards to play.
The bankruptcy of Putin's government
looms ever closer with each passing day.
The blitzkrieg Putin's generals had planned
presumed the secrecy Joe Biden'd blown.
While Europe stands fast with the better man,
the Russians find they're in this fight alone.
Ukraine's imposing sanctions, of a sort;
the Shadow Fleet's diminished, one by one.
Explosions on the Baltic,  or in port,
discreetly,  Special Forces get it done.
Ambitions Putin plainly can't afford
condemned a generation to grim war.

running on vapors

The Kremlin's buying rubles back for gold
like corporations pumping up their shares.
The specie Romanovs worked hard to hold's
evaporating in the Autumn air.
Potempkin's nation let slip the facade
that its economy can still support
the stupid war that Cyril blessed "by God",
while frightened bankers play their last resort.
That bullions finite, and his credit's shot;
Provincial Banks are glutted with his scrip.
When all that's left are nukes, and kompromat,
Ukraine hangs strong, while Putin 's seen to slip.
Failed bid to shatter Europe's common front
reveals this heir to Czars' the martial runt.

Emperor's Clothes

The Kremlin's buying rubles back in gold
from oligarchs intent to liquidate
whatever Russian assets can be sold.
The price is weak in such a panicked state.
Whoever can, is heading for the door
their capital flees faster than they can
as Russians realize they're in a war,
morale's way down since when this all began.
Potempkin's nation keeps up the facade
that it's a peer to any State extant.
But three days in, their troops had shot their wad;
and bluster won't achieve what soldiers can't.
That blitzkrieg war-chest long since burned away,
and troops get balky when the Brass can't pay.

Double Tap

"Leave no survivors!" Kegsbreath barked aloud
the crap no honest officer would think.
As if a US serviceman'd be proud
to murder sailors flailing in the drink.
Destroying evidence is always wrong--
like witness tampering--and this was both.
Loud coward who's intent on looking strong
blacked out on adolescent moral growth
Pariah Nation, strutting the world's stage;
dark parody of anything we'd been.
Apologists may point to Trump's old age;
historians are not acquiring him.
What his own Cabinet does in Trump's name,
belongs to him; he can't deflect the blame.

empires in retreat

Dimetriev slipped Witkof Putin's plan,
and Donald Trump turned in"his" homework sheet.
The same old landgrabs since the war began,
but now, it's Russia staring at defeat.
The blitzkrieg failed, Ukraine remained unbowed;
Zelenskyy stood, and didn't stand alone.
True allies sent what budgets had allowed;
the Europeans know this war's their own.
The Navy at the bottom of the sea,
the warplanes that don't dare to go aloft,
Defections decimate the infantry.
Morale in the Red Army's pudding-soft.
The gross examples we've already caught
make clear our presidency has been bought.

may his name be erased

There's silence, where encomia would be;
Dick Cheney'sv legacy's embarrassment.
Five trillion blown on wars lost overseas;
at home, a more intrusive government.
The principles he'd brayed he holds so
dear,
fell silent once there's power in his hand.
entrenching power by purveying fear
moved power from the People to one man.
To preach that torture isn't always wrong
as long as it gains power for the Few/
perverted what it had meant to be strong,
obscuring what real men would never do.
For years, I prayed that any flag half-mast
would signal--finally--Dick's age is past.

flip-flop

The war-chest Putin stocked by doubtful means/
looked like enough...until his blitzkrieg stalled.
But now, he's calling up cold-war machines,
and even Stalin might have been appalled,
at so much blood spent for so little gain.
Ukrainians prove quite as tough as Finns;
The paper tiger crumples in Ukraine.
Such wars are quick to lose, but not to win;
Trump's realized that Putin's cause is lost.
The empire of the Czars ain't coming back.
As long as Europeans bear the cost,
He won't restrain Ukrainians' attack.
Increasingly, the Kremlin sulks alone,
and darling Vanya's never coming home.