Version imprimableWhy then are the American people today against this war? First, President Donald Trump was elected promising to end the “endless foreign wars for regime change.” Hee and his administration never took the time to go before the American people and make their case for war. Then when they began the war, on the very first day, the United States bombed a girls school killing 150 children and another 30 teachers and staff. Trump denied the U.S. had hit the school and said that Iran had done it. Within a few days it was revealed by the media and the military itself that Trump had lied and that a U.S. missile had killed those 180 people. The American people were apparently shocked at the killing of the girls and Trump’s lie, and perhaps that’s why they haven’t rushed to endorse the war.
The American people, perhaps like most people, tend to think of themselves first and others well…later. Our country, or about half of it, has a big problem with compassion, with empathy. Rightwing Christians argue that empathy is a sin that leads people to become sympathetic to abortion, to LGBT rights, and to illegal immigration. Vice-president J.D. Vance calls that “toxic empathy” and has condemned it. Trump’s former advisor Elon Musk has said that, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” So, one seldom hears conservative Americans showing compassion for, say, the death of the Palestinians in Gaza or the Iranians or Lebanese whose cities are now being bombed. It is not clear that the killing of tens of thousands of those people would lead conservative Americans to want to end the war.
It’s hard to say if Islamic terrorist attacks in the United States, there have already been a couple, will sway people to give support to the war or to turn against it.
The two things that are most likely to move Americans to oppose a war are: 1) rising gasoline prices, and, 2) American casualties. The destruction of petroleum facilities in the Middle East and above all Iran’s blocking of the Straits of Hormuz have caused gasoline prices at the pump to rise rapidly and yet higher prices can be expected if the war goes on. Gas is now $3.00 per gallon everywhere and could quickly rise to $4.00, a price that would place the Republican control of Congress in jeopardy.
As I am writing on March 15, 13 U.S. soldiers have died in the war and as many as 150 have been wounded. As U.S. casualties grow, will also turn more Americans against the war, including some in Trump’s base.
Trump and his crew have blasted the U.S. media, calling its accurate reporting and critical commentary “fake news” and. “unpatriotic.” Secretary of Defense Hegseth has expressed hope that Larry and David Ellison, Trump billionaire allies who control much of the large media, would take over more of it. And Brendan Carr, Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has threatened to revoke licenses of broadcast media. But they cannot block the enormous signs on the highway that show the gas prices.
15 March 2026
