The fate of the country ...

A banner in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar featuring the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike at the start of the U.S.-Iran war.Credit...Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

A year ago, yours truly predicted this escalation and friends of mine laughed.
I bet they aren't laughing now.

This CF goes beyond Custer as Custer's fate was confined to a single battlefield. The US was not impacted.
With the war with Iran, foisted upon us by Israel and Trump, the impact of this CF's becoming existential.

To America’s allies, President Trump’s war in Iran, now in its sixth month,
seems headed for a strategic defeat.

They worry that the inability of the United States to turn military superiority into a sustainably changed Iran has displayed a vulnerability that Russia and China will welcome. In addition, Mr. Trump’s goals remain unmet, and the U.S. military is running short on key armaments that it needs for global reach.

For the moment, Iran is seemingly resolute under a more radical government, its nuclear and ballistic missile programs are degraded but not destroyed, and the Strait of Hormuz is effectively under its control. The war has left both the United States and Israel in weaker positions — and blaming each other for the mess.

Iranian missiles and drones not only restrict traffic through the strait and damage the economic infrastructure of allied energy production, but they also continue to threaten American bases across the Middle East and have killed or injured American service members.

The dignified transfer in Delaware for U.S. Army soldiers killed in action last month
while deployed in Jordan.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

What the domestic U.S. news is actively suppressing is the staggering scale of the devastation. The Pentagon officially admits to 19 U.S. soldiers dead, over 624 wounded, and 42 aircraft lost. But independent intel shows the Muwaffaq al-Salti Air Base in Jordan was absolutely gutted by Iranian ballistics.

Worse, the unrestricted infrastructure war has already started. The U.S. and Israel struck civilian, academic and gas sites in Tehran and Iran immediately responded by hitting critical water and electricity infrastructure in Kuwait. Factor in the Houthi blockade choking the Red Sea and one sees the entire Levant breaking apart under the thermodynamic stress of this war.

But the true tripwire? Iran's strikes inadvertently hit a Chinese installation by circumstance.
By dragging China's physical assets into the crossfire, the calculus of this disaster has officially
been raised to a possible World War III scenario.

This administration is destroying America as we speak. From the demonization of science and medicine to the weaponization of education and immigration, the damage is extreme and ongoing. Combine this with Israel defining our foreign policy and dictating how to destroy Iran has been a loss leader for the ages and supports the fact this war has become existential in scope. Where this goes, no one knows but from this writer's perspective, nothing good will come from this unless Trump is removed from office via the 25th. 

In closing, the midterms are the last hope for this nation as both houses must turn blue to try to limit the damage
and hold course until 2028. The fate of the country depends on it.