“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the [willful] illusion of [divine] knowledge [and revelation].” — Stephen Hawking, modified by me
Actually I want to better clarify the title of this post: “Theological or Factually Historical?” No, no, no… better yet, “Theologically Canonical or Factually Historical & Widely Verified?” Yes, that is much better.
Agnotology. What is it? What does it mean? What is its significance to us today?
I think I can help you get a general, in-depth understanding of what agnotology is, what it means, and why it is very significant to us in the 21st-century and beyond. Just go to my 4-part series, Games of Unknowledging. However, if you are incredibly impatient with a lacking attention span, then here’s a simple quick definition of Agnotology:
Agnotology is the process of intentionally creating or encouraging doubt or ignorance (or lack of knowledge), for example by spreading false information, in order to influence opinion, sell an ideology, sell a product, or gain an advantage, or the study of these processes.
But keep in mind my impatient followers and readers, that may not be enough.
For the purpose of this blog-post I want to distinguish the growing chasm between religion (Abrahamic religions especially) and historical fact that is verified and corroborated by the majority of scholars and experts in all the many, many scientific fields of human history.
Christianity Cracking, Crumbling, and Collapsing as a Truthful Faith
The most significant of these failures is the historical reality of widely diverse “Christianities” or denominations, today over 40,000 plus. The political process of deciding the New Testament canon over a 400–700 year period, known as Ecumenical Counsels of the Early Catholic Church (circa 4th-century) by their highest ranking Greek priests, Greek bishops, Greek archbishops, and Greek cardinals caused immeasurable amounts of ambiguity. The first counsel you may have heard about was the First Council of Nicaea from May to July of 325 CE. After the Nicene Council it was followed-up by no less than seven (7) more counsels all the way into 754–787 CE last at the Palace of Hieria near Constantinople of the Eastern Roman Empire. Why so many counsels to decide what theology was correct, was truthful, was divine revelation over 400+ years after Jesus’ death and then everything that was later found wrong? What were the many disagreements, fractures, mistakes, false testimonies of the nature of “Christ the Messiah?” The still present enigma of Christ’s nature begs the bigger question of What was all of the mass confusion among the earliest Christian followers? Let’s get some historically verified background.
From the table above we see the major problem of earliest Christianity in the 4th-century and 5th-century was:
Divine Inspired Unity vs. Human (or Roman) Politics and Welfare — the traditional religious narrative suggests that Jesus established a single, clear doctrine passed down perfectly through his apostles. However, historical and archaeological discoveries—most notably the Nag Hammadi library found in 1945—proved that early Christianity was a chaotic web of competing groups with radically different beliefs about Jesus’ purpose.
The “Orthodoxy” — the heavy indoctrination we know today did not naturally emerge as the sole truth; it was codified through centuries of intense political maneuvering, theological debates, and Roman Imperial intervention by Greek-Roman men.
The Selection of Scripture Was Absolutely Political from the Start: The books of the New Testament were not bound together immediately after Jesus’s death. They were not tossed down from the heavens from God either. For the first few centuries after Jesus’ execution, different Christian sects used completely different gospels. The choice of which books to include (and which to burn or banish) into a codified Bible was a slow, human process finalized centuries later. Books like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Mary were rejected not because they lacked historical merit, but because their theology didn’t align with the specific authoritarian faction that eventually won political power.
Imperial Intervention (The Council of Nicaea): In 325 CE, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great—a political ruler, not a religious prophet—convened the Council of Nicaea. He did this because Christian infighting was threatening the stability of the Roman Empire. The council voted on foundational doctrines, such as the exact nature of Jesus’s divinity (the Arian controversy). This solidified the reality that modern Christian orthodoxy was heavily shaped by Roman statecraft, not Jesus’ reform movement.
The “Synoptic Problem” and Textual Evolution: Textual criticism shows that the Gospels were not written by eyewitnesses as eyewitness accounts. They were written decades later (between 70 and 110 CE) by anonymous, Greek-speaking authors, not Mishnaic Hebrew-speaking Jews such as Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Matthew and Luke heavily copied from Mark and a lost source known as “Q,” changing details, theological emphasis, and even historical timelines to fit or retrofit their specific interests and audiences.
Ultimately, whether these facts “undermine” or dismantle Christendom as I think they do, it all depends on the individual faith-believer, not an All-knowing, All-present God and Son. For fundamentalists or Christian Nationalists today who require literal, historical inerrancy, these historical facts pose a severe challenge. For the progressive or mainline theologians, they simply show that God worked through the messy, complex reality of human history, a bit of a cop-out in my opinion. Why? Because if you collect the entire whole of everything related to Earliest Christianity up to the last seventh ecumenical counsel, which certainly includes Roman Empire recorded, extant history (of which they were obsessed with) and all Jewish literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Tannaim Period of Jewish rabbinic-sage literature—that does indeed still exist between 10–220 CE—and during the lifetime of Yeshua bar Yosef, or Jesus, they overwhelmingly show just how messy, erroneous, retro-fitted via hindsight to cover problematic (false?) theology of the new Roman Catholic Church, and how the person named Jesus or Iisoús in Koine Greek in the canonical New Testament, was in fact NOT the divine resurrected messiah the Roman Empire (via Greco-Roman tradition of Apotheosis) fabricated. For example, there were many, many regional pagan and Jewish historians of the time during Jesus’ lifetime or within less-than 100-years of his life that wrote NO INDEPEDENT RECORDS whatsoever of a “Jesus Christ.” That is damning of Christianity. Furthermore, within a century of Jesus’ life do any of these known authors/historians make any mention of the later twelve disciples or apostles. Who are they? They are:
So this begs the question, Why the literal hiding of such a supposed Lord and Savior for all humankind to the rest of the world? What’s the purpose of the cloak and dagger? The answer? There is none and it is very, very poor foresight for an All-knowing, All-present theological God.
The Stark Comparisons and Distinctions Within Christianity Then and Today
historical fact
Christian belief
historical reality
The New Testament
A divinely inspired, unchanging set of books.
A curated collection from dozens of competing texts by early church leaders/men.
Early Church Doctrine
A unified, universally agreed-upon faith.
A fractured landscape of Gnostics, Marcionites, & Ebionites who fiercely disagreed on the nature of Jesus Christ.
Rise of Roman Orthodoxy post-320 CE
The Holy Spirit naturally guided the “true faith” to world victory.
Roman Imperial enforcement outlawed, suppressed, and destroyed competing Christian sects.
To surmise, 1) the above table, 2) the lack of independent historical sources, 3) the widely diverse, disagreeing, sometimes fighting sects over the nature of who Jesus actually was from a Greco-Roman tradition, versus 4) the historical realities of the time-period between 63 BCE and 70 CE known as the Jewish Late Second Temple Period, all show as a whole that 5) the roots of earliest Christianity (i.e. The Way Movement) through the end of the Seven Ecumenical Counsels in 787 CE reveal at best Christianity’s flimsy foundation. At worst it clearly reveals no unified theology, doctrine, or orthodoxy of practices or faith. Why?
Plain and simply, the vast chasm that existed between imperial Greco-Roman (Hellenistic-Herodian) traditions, language (Koine Greek), and culture was factually incompatible with Jesus’ beliefs, his Jewish background, he and his people’s Mishnaic Hebrew language that also included Syro-Aramaic at times, and their long established Jewish literature and traditions on who, what, and why the Jewish Messiah was to arrive for them.
Because of these deep chasms mentioned between two clashing, adversarial cultures—Roman Empire vs. Judaism—when the earliest Roman Catholic Church began to ascend, the rewritten, hijacked, edited, redacted, ambiguous, suppressive manmade orthodoxy of forming the Biblical canon over seven Roman counsels in a 300-400 year period was failing and failing bad, particularly after the siege and sacking of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE killing most Homeland Jews royally screwed any hope of total unity. As a result, the Christian canons became so heavily contaminated and contradictory later that it caused incessant confusion among all Christians then and to this day over a meager, simple 1st-century CE Jewish rabbi-reformer who failed to be the Jewish Messiah according to Jesus’ own people, then and today.
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
Tomorrow as we remember the tragic events of 9-11 twenty-five years ago which happened in Lower Manhattan, New York, American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the North Tower at 8:46am and United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower at 9:03am of the World Trade Center Twin Towers. A bit later American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, Washington D.C. at 9:37am, this was followed by another cockpit-hijacked jumbo jet, United Airlines Flight 93. Passengers had managed to get wind via phone calls with family of the crashes at the WTC towers and the Pentagon. As a result, those passengers rushed the cockpit to stop the hijackers. Sadly, the hijackers flew the jumbo jet straight down and it plowed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:02am. Its target was not certain, but it was most likely the White House or the US Capitol building.
After those first 76-minutes of September 11, 2001, 265 people were instantly killed (not including the 19 Jihadist hijackers) aboard those four planes, including eight small children younger than 12-years old. Approximately 125-130 people inside the Pentagon perished immediately when Flight 77 impacted the the outer three rings and a portion of the inner fourth ring. The exact number of people killed instantly by the jumbo jets crashing into the North and South Towers cannot be determined due to the eventual collapses of both towers. However, Wikipedia does offer a good idea of approximately how many were instantly killed by the plane crashes at the WTC.
The point of this blog-post is to remind all Americans that the horrifying attacks of September 11th could have and should have been stopped if it weren’t for too many personal sensitive government egos, arrogance, and them losing complete sight of who it is they really work for and serve: the safety and well-being of American citizens! The American people pay their salaries! Ultimately, the People of the United States are their financier, their payroll paychecks! Why was there so much internal power struggles inside our federal government? Why did those top government officials let their own hurt feelings and personal egos get in the way of saving American lives?
Yesterday I rewatched an excellent investigative PBS program by Frontline called The Man Who Knew. Here is a trailer of the documentary:
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Six of those “lost” hurt government officials inside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an ambassador in Yemen, East Africa, and the Office of the U.S. Attorney General during the time of at least 1992 to September 11, 2001, could have and should have protected and saved American lives, both domestically and abroad, instead of only concerning themselves with their hurt, damaged childish feelings and pride when told repeatedly about how highly organized globally and growing the terrorist group Al-Qaeda was becoming with Osama bin-Laden as the mastermind and money-funder. The first attack by Al-Qaeda at the Gold Mohur Hotel in Aden, Yemen, in December 1992, then the first attack on the WTC in February 1993, the attack in November 1995 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, followed by the attacks in August 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Finally, the attack on the USS Cole in January 2000 and once again in Yemen’s Aden harbor all should have been massive red flags to U.S. leading, top officials inside the FBI and the federal Attorney General’s office. But too much prideful lack of collaboration and open communication between federal departments failed miserably to protect and save American lives between 1992 and 2001. Period, no ifs ands or buts. Who are the five American officials that absolutely failed the American people and were appallingly derelict of their sworn duties as federal employees? They are…
James Woolsey – CIA Director 1993–1995. Though Woolsey was not a primary icon in the earliest Al-Qaeda attacks during his two years at the CIA, he could have amplified more persistently to his upper superiors what they were learning and had learned so far about Al-Qaeda’s plans. Sound the alarm bells louder and longer about the Bojinka Plot.
Robert “Bear” Bryant – FBI Deputy Director 1997–1999. Like Woolsey above Bryant could have done more, such as going to the news media to allow the alarm bells to be heard because Bryant believed in John O’Neill, the top go-to Guru of Al-Qaeda and Osama bin-Laden. Unfortunately, that would not have been FBI protocol and the repercussions from one’s FBI superiors and their superiors above them in the Department of Justice and the White House would or could ruin one’s entire career for going to the public behind their back. Ironically, it is in fact THE PUBLIC the federal government works for and serves and protects!
Louis J. Freeh – FBI Director 1993-2001. Freeh was good friends with Tom Pickard and both of them did not care for (hated?) John O’Neill’s personality, methods, or expertise on terrorism. After Ruby Ridge, Waco & the Branch Davidians, the Khobar Towers bombing Saudi Arabia, the TWA Flight 800 crash, and a long list of other American tragedies, by December 2001 Freeh was heavily criticized as one of the worst FBI Directors to hold the office, Freeh’s biggest criticism came from former Attorney General Janet Reno who also had unpleasant things to say about then acting Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Thomas J. Pickard – FBI Interim Assistant Director in 1996–1998, then Deputy Director in 1999, and FBI Director in June 2001–Sept 2001. Pickard was implicated as a direct opponent to John O’Neill and eventually had the top Guru of Osama bin-Laden/Al-Qaeda expended and terminated by a minor FBI offense. Pickard is most likely the leak to the New York Times about O’Neill’s insubstantial offense. Pickard never liked John O’Neill as a person or FBI agent/supervisor on Al-Qaeda and bin-Laden and his personal vendetta to O’Neill cost thousands and thousands of American lives.
John D. Ashcroft – U.S. Attorney General 2001–2005. Ashcroft was often criticized for doing far too little too late about terrorist threats on American soil and at foreign locations around the world, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. Perhaps his largest blunder was not having any clue about the sophisticated build-up of Al-Qaeda cells around the world and inside the United States due to internal strife and egos in the FBI and poor collaboration between his office and the FBI. Ashcroft is not exempt from his part of complacency and ignorance to and about 9/11. In fact, sworn testimony of two FBI agents later interviewed by the 9/11 Commission stated “he had ignored warnings of an imminent al-Qaida attack.”
Barbara K. Bodine – U.S. Ambassador to Yemen 1997–2001. There were many conflicts between Bodine and John O’Neill during the aftermath of the USS Cole bombing there. The most controversial and colossal blunder by Bodine to O’Neill was denying him visa re-entry into Yemen after a trip back to the New York for Thanksgiving. Because of her ego, pride, and lack of investigative protocol, she hindered further investigation into the Cole bombing which would have or could have led O’Neill and the FBI to bin-Laden and the already present Al-Qaeda cells in the United States and the 19 Jihadist terrorist-hijackers training to fly American jumbo jets. This could have likely foiled and stopped bin-Laden’s ultimate plan for September 11th.
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With the current horrid detrimental shape and direction of this United States of America are going through today under the President’s administration, co-led by his MAGA officials in Congress (Supreme Court included), and his public base, I really recommend (urge you?) watching the full hour and twenty-five minute PBS FRONTLINE® documentary, The Man Who Knew. Had so many FBI and Attorney General’s office personnel and deputy directors and directors under President George W. Bush’s watch not had their toes stepped on, feelings hurt, egos and pride dented, and minor protocol debates and rules of etiquette arguments—something that is happening here right now in Washington D.C. …this country would not have to suffer through and remember every year the terrible events of September 11, 2001, and perhaps again now until 2028. Think about it. This country badly needs, requires our federal and state government employees to serve and work for the American people, not for themselves or for more money and campaign donations. Elect those candidates who live that Constitutional principle (for us) this October and November.
Have any of you ever been caught in a natural catastrophe? Have you ever experienced firsthand what it is like to endure a Category 5 or 6 hurricane? What about a tornado? Ever experienced in your life firsthand an EF5 twister? Have you been through a volcanic eruption? What about an out-of-control wild fire or a disastrous flash flood? Here’s one that is becoming more common, What about a total power outage for 3-10 days?
From February 10 to February 20, 2021, Texas suffered its most catastrophic major power-grid failure during an arctic blast from Winter Storm Uri. I went through Uri while living in Dallas, TX, at the time and it was bad, real bad. I had no way of saving all my electronic device batteries unless I went out to my car, started it, and hooked up the power adaptors to the devices. Doing this for a long, silent, semi-alone 10-days was quite difficult. It was the first time for me to go through a long blackout alone. Cell phone networks were still operating, thank goodness, but that lasted only as long as my batteries lasted and I’d go out to my car, fire it up, and recharge my phone. I needed to stay in touch with my Mom and sister 5.25 hours away down in Kerrville near San Antonio, TX. But I was also thinking when my cell battery was exhausted and I didn’t have a power source/outlet, then what? What if you use up all of your gasoline in the car during a much, much longer power outage and it will no longer start? Load up as much as possible with gas in small gas tanks then store them somewhere safe?
Eventually my brain methodically kept going, thinking through the possible (probable?) causes and effects of my situation, other’s situation, and then I thought of a more dark, sinister situation I learned during Hurricane Rita in 2005, an already Category 5 hurricane predicted to hit somewhere between Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana. In 2005 metro Houston’s population was around 5.3-million people. Houston is the largest metropolitan area in Texas. Everyone in Houston, particularly in the south of Houston all the way to Galveston, Texas City, Dickinson, Kemah, Alvin, Pearland, Pasadena, Sugarland, and La Porte, all southern suburbs and towns near the Gulf of Mexico coast were urged by authorities to evacuate north or northwest as soon as possible. What did I learn and witness on the news? It was a seriously disturbing wakeup call to me.
The woman I was dating for over three years lived down in Friendswood, TX, another suburb of south Houston. She lived there with her two other younger brothers and their wives and children. The older brother and my girlfriend evacuated Friendswood two days early than the youngest brother, his wife, and three children who was trying to evacuate the day before of Rita’s expected landfall as she neared Houston, TX. Over the phone my girlfriend listened to her youngest brother and wife describe what they were seeing and experiencing live trying to get out of north Houston on two-lane Interstate Hwy. I-45N near Spring, TX, up to Conroe, TX, 40-miles north of downtown Houston.
Travel time/distance from Friendswood to Conroe, TX, thru downtown Houston, TX, in normal conditions and traffic – Google Maps
What they began seeing, moving sometimes only 10mph at the most or completely stopped, around them on I-45N was horrifying, bordering on total anarchy by hundreds of thousands of motorists. Cars, trucks, 18-wheelers (lorries in the UK) and motorcycles whizzing by up through the center of the highway in between vehicles or on the embankment passing all the other stopped vehicles with no regard for safety. Those with kids in the vehicles were beginning to urinate or defecate either in the median or off the embankment of I-45N. Adults would too. The brother and his wife also mentioned to my girlfriend how many people were absolutely disrespectful, angry, afraid, crazy and ready to do whatever it took to care for themselves and their immediate loved ones regardless of the higher risks to others. And in Texas the vast majority of Texans own weapons they carry or keep in their vehicle. My girlfriend told me she had never heard her brother and sister-in-law so scared shitless.
As I was remembering all those dark memories and thoughts in 2005, I couldn’t help but realize what might happen during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 if the power-grid was not returned to service in a reasonable amount of time. The entire state of Texas had no power for around 9-14 days depending on utility work crews available. I realized how much of our lives, our society is now utterly dependent on two facts of life: 1)electronic devices/machines, computers, cell phones, internet/WiFi, electrical electronics in our vehicles, ATM’s, satellite navigation and GPS, and2) the power, the electricity to power all of it and/or the fuel, energy to run everything electronic. To say I wasn’t paranoid of others and their erratic mindsets was a lie.
I was very aware of human nature then and today when it is put into circumstances of life or death, or serious harm, and little to no control over it or the ability to stop it. Many people do not cope well. They do not start using their survival instinct or their brain, they panic, they freak the hell out and lose all rationale, safety, and typically all altruism and ingenuity. Lifeguards at pools or on beaches, or the U.S. Coast Guard seamen and women all know that those they try to sometimes rescue can try to pull them under, fight them in order to breathe and save their own life at your expense. That is human nature under extreme stress and panic.
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I watched a film today with the wife. It was on Netflix and it was about this exact same predicament I’ve described above happening to two families. The 2023 film is called Leave the World Behind and still streaming on Netflix. It stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, Myha’la, and Kevin Bacon. And if any of you have not seen it I highly recommend it. Why? Because number one Barack and Michelle Obama are executive producers through their Higher Ground Productions banner and notoriety. Number two, it disturbingly shows just how dependent our current U.S. culture and society are not just addicted to electronics in every way of our daily lives, but worse still how much 21st-century military defense, arms, and equipment like modern drones rely almost entirely on computer electronics. This doesn’t mention the fact that our private or government businesses and agencies and commerce rely heavily on satellite navigation systems, communications, and GPS in transportation and shipping sectors around the world via thousands upon thousands of Medium Earth Orbits to Low Earth Orbits. And by the way, if you haven’t heard, highly advanced computer AI corporations have already produced, released, and operate systems that monitor, build, or hack into other sophisticated AI systems.
Watch Leave the World Behind available on Netflix and get a harsh reality check about the high-tech world and nation we live in and under. Then if you can return here and share your thoughts about the film and just how closely it accurately reflects our present American lifestyles of hyper-dependence on energy, power, electricity, and computer system networks. Are we in control of our lives and our future? Is our current president and administration really intelligently capable of protecting Americans or themselves given the still ongoing 6-month War with Iran?
Nothing else needs saying, except this is just one colossal iceberg off the coast of Ilulissat, Greenland, among hundreds of others breaking off or calving at alarming rates over the last 10-20 years. This particular iceberg moved into Disko Bay, Greenland, after fracturing, melting and then became small enough to literally flip, doing a somersault and creating massive waves as it broke apart due to Climate Change.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is also covered in one of the earth’s two ice sheets. The other cloaks Antarctica. Greenland’s encompasses around 80 percent of the nation’s land mass, spanning more than 650,000 square miles. But it’s also melting at an accelerating rate due to climate change, losing an annual average of 261 gigatonnes—one gigatonne is equivalent to 2.2 trillion pounds—contributing to rising sea levels that impact the rest of the world. And Greenland’s massive icebergs are a reminder of this exceptional scale. Once the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland erode past a specific amount of square miles, a point the Earth is reaching rapidly—unless the remaining superpower nations like the United States do more, A LOT MORE—the planet can no longer be saved. Most life as we know it, such as humans and most animals on land and in the seas, will perish. Us, we, and they will indeed go extinct. Guaranteed.
When 195 countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2016, the Copernicus Climate Change Service estimated that Earth would reach the 1.5 degrees threshold by 2042. But now, the European organization’s global temperature trend monitor predicts that Earth will hit 1.5 degrees Celsius in warming by 2029—just three years from now. No one country is doing enough, period. But for 2026 what 10 nations are doing the most to slow Climate Change?
Denmark — Overall score: 80.52
United Kingdom — Overall score: 70.8
Morocco — Overall score: 70.75
Chile — Overall score: 70.63
Luxembourg — Overall score: 70.45
Lithuania — Overall score: 70.3
Netherlands — Overall score: 67.27
Norway — Overall score: 66.83
Portugal — Overall score: 66.05
Sweden — Overall score: 64.91
Want to know where the United States ranks? Are you sitting down? The USA is #65 and dropping as of August 5, 2026, at 12:07pm CST (-5 hrs UTC).
Civilization must, I repeat MUST get off and stop burning fossil fuels and other gases and minerals causing Global Warming. It is so much worse than first predicted 40-60 years ago! What are you doing about it at home? What are you doing about Climate Change in your neighborhood, community, town, city, or state? What are you making your elected government officials address, and take action, not just hear their repeated lip-service?
Here’s the outlook, it’s bleak, very bleak if we continue with business-as-usual:
Not only will you, your spouse or partner suffer greatly from every imaginable disaster possible, severe food shortages, empty grocery stores, increased extreme temperatures, increased draughts more prolonged, increased flooding, more 1,000-year and 100-year Category 4 and 5 (and 6?) storms, hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes… but your own children, nieces, nephews, cousins, siblings, parents(?), and best friends, followed by your grandchildren and all of their relatives, will begin to die off from a wide variety of health issues, disease, malnutrition, and other problems yet unknown!
Doing nothing or very, very little, and too slowly has just ONE outcome for us all. It isn’t rocket science.
“An army of sheep led by a shrewd lion is better than an army of lions led by a reckless sheep.”
—Attributed to Alexander the Great, c. 324 BCE, modified
The history of warfare disasters by command blunders in the present day, in the modern era, and as far back as the Roman and Macedonian Empires, too often imparts the painful reality that if supreme leaders of those belligerent nations fail to take heed or ignore lessons from past colossal warfare tragedies, then they are doomed to repeat them; most often at a higher cost of lives, civilian and/or military lives, and worse still accumulate more national debt or bankruptcy. Military history and its political governance is replete with foolish supreme leaders at the top, down to his commanders, and his consulting politicians (cabinet) most of whom are too afraid to speak up.
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In the annals of military warfare since the beginning of recorded history there are multitudes of catastrophes by aggressors, belligerents, and their arrogant supreme commanders. Example after example after example of these tactical, strategic, economic, political blunders can either be observed, comprehended, and applied to warfare or foolishly ignored. Yet, beware, the final butcher’s bill from those monumental tragedies by clumsy, impulsive leadership often led those combatants, their loyal ranks, and back home their civilian population to suffer the losses and drive distrust, low morale, and often lead to ruin. Ignorance and hubris become a graveyard for the incompetent leaders, commanders, political proponents, and in some historical conflicts the fall of a once great nation or empire. Repeating history proves time and time again these cruel lessons to the demise of those foolish enough to ignore it.
For the sake of time this blog-post will concentrate on the modern era, specifically in the early part of World War II in Europe (1940 thru 1943) and how blunder after blunder, disaster after disaster plagued the two supreme leaders of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. While reading, I would like for all of you to find eerily similar (identical?) blunders that happened recently and are happening presently in the U.S. and the world. The similarities are remarkably telling.
Führer conference at HQ Army Group South, 1 June 1942. Left to right: Generalleutnant Adolf Ernst Heusinger, General der Infanterie Georg von Sodenstern, Generaloberst Max Freiherr von Weichs, Adolf Hitler, General der Panzertruppe Friedrich Paulus, Generaloberst Eberhard von Mackensen, and Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock. Image: Wikimedia Commons.
Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain
After Hitler’s and Goering’s failed Operation Alderangriff (Eagle Attack) and Operation Sea Lion in 1940 against Great Britain, Adolf Hitler made his second major blunder of the Second World War just after his first one at Dunkirk, off the northern coast of France. There Hitler stopped his Army Group A of tanks and soldiers just a few miles outside of the French town of Dunkirk. This halt was an enormous mistake by Hitler because he allowed the British Expeditionary Force of nearly 340,000 Allied soldiers, who were completely surrounded by the German Wehrmacht pushed literally into the sea, to escape by sea to fight Hitler’s Third Reich another day. This blunder would soon come back to haunt him and inflict losses on his Western Front he could ill afford to recoup.
The British Expeditionary Force and French forces are pushed into the English Channel and onto anything floating at Dunkirk, June 1940
The Battle of Britain in the skies over England, Sept. 15, 1940 – Art by Gary Eason
These two botched operations were the beginning of Hitler’s false idea of himself as a gifted supreme commander. Though Hitler was a veteran of World War I, achieving only the rank of Lance Corporal (Gefreiter), at minimum he had combat experience when he became German Chancellor and later Führer. Many “supreme commanders” around the world have no military or combat experience whatsoever. This puts them in a position of either listening to their expert military commanders, political staff and national GDP economists and heeding their opinions, or ignoring the hard facts and bumble through by trail and error—unfortunately at the cost of valuable, irreplaceable lives and material resources.
Despite Hitler having WW I combat experience, actual reality of wars and battlefields mattered little to Hitler and his self-deluded truth or to his lack of military prowess. Eventually it was a brutal lesson he was forced to accept, but accepted far too late to avoid the total destruction and defeat of his 1,000-year Reich. Making matters worse it came at the unfathomable expense of 7.8-million German soldiers and civilians dead by May 1945.
How did fuck-up after fuck-up chase Hitler after the victories over Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France in April and May 1940, just over a mere two months? Why was the defeat by Great Britain in October 1940 the beginning of the end for Hitler?
Hitler versus Stalin– 1942 and 1943
Despite Hitler’s significant blunders and loss to Great Britain in October 1940, his ego and oversized self-esteem as the supreme leader of Nazi Germany he never waned in the following military operations from July 1942 through February 1943. The one operation that would seal the fate of Hitler and Nazi Germany’s hemorrhaging military machine, along with Germany’s resources and GDP to outlast Allied victory was a belief, a hope based on exaggerated reports of hyped propaganda, poor intelligence, actual smaller German production output, and scared subordinates to inform him unequivocally the real condition of his Reich. With each passing month his inner circle of generals, politicians, and economists grew increasingly distrustful (privately) of Hitler’s capabilities to lead. Those that were brave, candid with him were either fired and fired, then replaced by equally scared field marshals, generals, politicians, and economists. Those who showed backbone to him were often executed by firing squad or hung.
While still fighting an ever growing and draining war in Western Europe against the British and its Commonwealth countries, the giant producing United States, along with Free French, Belgian, Polish, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian armies and pilots, as well as the French Resistance, and in Belgium, Holland, Poland, Denmark, and Norway Resistances inside their conquered occupied countries—all of which were immensely strong and very worthy enemies against Nazi Germany—Hitler makes one his most infamous, asinine, doomed decisions for himself and Germany’s entire Second World War campaign: Operation Barbarossa. In fact, most World War II military historians today assert Hitler’s choice to open a second front against the Soviets while still fighting on his Western Front, marked the real incompetence of Hitler and the start of the Third Reich’s collapse.
In June 1941 Hitler’s Axis forces consisted of 3.8-million men, armor, artillery, and planes to attack the Soviet Union that in contrast consisted of 5.5-million men, armor, artillery, and planes defending approximately 3.3-million square kilometers, or 1.3-million square miles from Leningrad to the north, to the outskirts of Moscow in central Russia, to Stalingrad and Krasnodar in the Soviet south. The German Eastern front stretched about 3,000 km (almost 1,900 miles) making supplies and replacements near impossible. The sheer size of the Eastern Front gave the Soviets a better 2-to-1 advantage for Joseph Stalin and the USSR. More over Stalin was seemingly replenishing his losses while Hitler could not. Factor in the Russian winters between December and March, sometimes lingering into April, Hitler drastically overestimated his Wehrmacht’s abilities, their mobility, a smaller German production rate compared to Stalin’s, then Hitler had created a recipe for failure.
Hitler grossly underestimated Soviet production, Soviet resilience, and arrogantly misjudged a realistic time-frame for total victory. On top of those blunders the Russian winters essentially made Stalin’s defense forces two to five times more lethal in comparison to Hitler’s colossal miscalculations. Over a century earlier Napoleon Bonaparte learned the exact same disastrous mistake. Apparently Hitler and his military top brass never learned from Napoleon and Russia’s arctic winters. Why not? Couple that with Nazi Germany’s appointed generals reporting false, exaggerated propaganda back to their temperamental Führer, made Operation Barbarossa doomed before it began. By the start of 1943 with the German Wehrmacht losing Russian land once conquered, Hitler was increasingly angry and only wanted to listen to German victories, not honest reports about the true condition of his failing Eastern campaign and many setbacks.
The Russian heavy fall rains leading up to the deadly Russian winter on the same route Napoleon took in his offensive to Moscow against the TsarAlexander’s forces, October 1812
Meanwhile, though Stalin had absolutely no combat experience as a soldier or general in the field, by January 1942 after rescuing Moscow from the jaws of defeat, Stalin abandoned his earlier war strategy of reckless, aggressive, ruthless bloody attacks, counter-attacks with enormous Russian casualties—often ordering his army to attack without any weapons. Stalin learned quickly that listening to and following much better tactics from his experienced military commanders such as Zhukov and Timoshenko. With win after win Stalin placed greater trust in his expert military commanders rather than what his Nazi counter-part, Adolf Hitler was doing. With Hitler increasingly raged on his generals, firing them and firing them, or expecting them to literally commit suicide by fighting to the death when all was lost. Retreat or surrender was not tolerated by Hitler, ever. He only craved attacking, conquering, and then repeat it all again; no stopping, no retreating.
Consequently, the supreme Nazi leader, perhaps in distraught mania, unstable mental health, and drug addiction, and failing to capture Moscow, Hitler made his next colossal blunder: Battle of Kharkiv, then Operation Fredericus, then Operation Star, and finally Operation General Rumyantsev. If Operation Barbarossa wasn’t a gigantic, wasteful emptying of Nazi’s Third Reich armies and Panzer tank divisions, and urgently needed resupplying and refitting, then the above four operations for the southern regions of the USSR and the envied, rich oil fields, then the tangent campaigns southward Hitler planned would certainly spell the close end of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. And yet again, the German Führer craved more.
Operation Blue and the Battle of Stalingrad
In the summer of 1942 Hitler launched another reckless offensive campaign codenamed Operation Blue. By launching this campaign, despite being turned back outside of Moscow with heavy losses, due to the extremely outstretched Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe supply-lines longer than 1,200 km (or about 746 miles) from the Polish border to Moscow, Adolf Hitler gambled and risked far more than he could pay and replace. How much did Germany lose?
Operation Barbarossa cost the Nazi Wehrmacht and Panzer tank divisions men, whole divisions, mechanized armor/vehicles, munitions, and material for which German industry or military recruitment could never quickly replace, much less the valuable experience lost by so many dead soldiers and pilots. And yet, those horrific facts, those appalling losses, lower morale, didn’t seem to matter to Hitler. Instead, he would push forward with his next hair-brained campaigns: Fall Blau and the Battle for Stalingrad.
German Wehrmact clearing the streets in Stalingrad
The conflict for Stalingrad and Voronezh, Rostov, Kuban, the Caucasus, and southern Russia (Operation Blue) would last for 6-months, 2-weeks, and 2-days along with losses of over 300,000 German soldiers, over 400,000 of the 4th Panzer Army, 900 aircraft destroyed, 1,500 tanks destroyed, 6,000 guns/artillery, and 744 aircraft 1,666 tanks, 1,652 guns captured/lost. To put this catastrophe in another perspective, those are losses Hitler and Nazi Germany could not recoup. Worst still it put German workers, conscripted workers, and the German war industry in an impossible predicament that would not be nor could be reversed despite Adolf Hitler’s continued delusional demands and visions of victory on his people and war-machine.
Furthermore, most all of Hitler’s great Field Marshalls and Generals knew by this point in 1942 and certainly by the end of 1943 that once the Western Allies of Great Britain and the United States along with their supporting cast of nations, would indeed open up a third front against a weakening Nazi Germany. The second front was opened in Sicily then Italy 1943 and moving north to Rome, southern France and Austria. The first front was Hitler’s colossal blunder of invading the Soviet Union in 1941 soon after he started the initial front in the West against France and Britain, who he was fighting for two years plus. These combined four fronts bled and drained Germany’s ability to wage war successfully. In fact, once he attacked Stalin and the USSR Hitler’s annihilation was certain. But right up until May of 1945, living deep underground in his Führerbunker a meager pathetic existence before he committed suicide with his mistress Eva Braun, Hitler believed fervently (psychotically?) the war could still be saved for Nazi Germany with Ghost Divisions and Battalions he was unaware did not exist. Adolf Hitler refused to accept his colossal foolishness as a civil or military leader right up to the second he pulled the trigger of his Walther PPK pistol. He was the ultimate symbol and definition of a Cult Mad Man that directed an estimated 18–20 million human deaths, civilian and military. A quick jump to the present…
How would such a U.S. budget compare to military spending by both partners and potential adversaries today?
A shocking comparison in light of the constant rhetoric from Trump and Pete Hegseth.
How would this level of U.S. spending, if sustained, impact our federal debt? Rhetorical question; this present administration is spending and wasting enormous amounts of money, taxpayer dollars, interest charges, etc., as if it all just grows on trees blooming weekly or monthly. Insanity.
Shocking for a political party that historically has been hardline staunch on reducing the U.S. National Debt!What has happened to normal, often sane, moderate Republicans in this country?
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Endless Screw Ups and Ludicrous Obsessions
Not only was Adolf Hitler a horrible, mentally depraved military leader as we’ve learned so far, but he was also a monumental screw-up politically, socially, and economically for the German people from 1938–1946, pre-, during, and post-war posthumously. It would take Germany and its surviving people several more decades to fully recover and while continuing Second World War reparation payments—surprisingly something they are still doing today.
Instead of typing all of Hitler’s many, many enormous mistakes and colossal bad decisions after decision, I will just present below this side-by-side comparison of Hitler’s fuck-ups next to today’s U.S. president Donald J. Trump’s equally dumb fuck-ups.
Strange Controversial “Nation-Partners”
ADOLF HITLER
Italy – Benito Mussolini. Mussolini headed many war crimes and crimes against humanity, primarily use of poison gas, brutal civilian massacres, and the persecution of Jews. Mussolini dragged Hitler into wasteful conflicts.
Japan – Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo. During World War II, the Empire of Japan committed massive war crimes, including the Nanjing Massacre, human experimentation by Unit 731, and the abuse of prisoners of war.
Several Minor Nations – Several of these countries and their leaders committed war and civilian atrocities such as illegal arrests, torture, and execution.
DONALD TRUMP
Israel – Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has not yet been legally found guilty of war crimes, but the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him on November 21, 2024, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Hungary – Viktor Orbán. Orbán openly suppresses democratic norms & drafted a new constitution to his liking.
Russia – Vladimir Putin. Putin has become a dictator over Russia the last21-years rigging elections, imprisoning or killing political opponents, and illegally attacked or conquered neighboring countries.
Mohammed bin Salman – Saudi Crown Prince. Salman was close friends with Jeffrey Epstein and ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Kim Jong Un – N. Korea. Kim is well-known to purge government officials and order imprisonments or executions on any perceived threats to his total power.
Delusional Obsession with Self Monuments
HITLER
Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Nuremberg) Built between 1933 and 1937, the site featured the massive Zeppelinfield grandstand, modeled after the ancient Pergamon Altar, designed to stage colossal propaganda spectacles.
New Reich Chancellery (Berlin) Completed in 1939, this vast complex featured a 146-meter Marble Gallery and an immense office for Hitler designed to intimidate visiting diplomats.
Berlin Olympic Stadium (Berlin) Built for the 1936 Olympic Games, it was used to project an image of Aryan national strength, racism, anti-Semitic international legitimacy.
Planned Monuments:
The Triumphal Arch (Berlin) Designed to dwarf Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, standing nearly 120-meters high as a monument to German military dominance.
The Volkshalle (Berlin) A monstrous, domed “People’s Hall” sketched by Hitler himself, intended to be the spiritual centerpiece of a rebuilt Berlin (Welthauptstadt Germania) that could hold 180,000 people.
The Führermuseum (Linz) Planned for his hometown in Austria, this massive cultural center and museum was meant to house the looted art treasures of Europe.
TRUMP
East Wing Gold Ballroom a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, with costs estimated between $400 million and $600 million, alongside planned underground bunker and drone port security integrations.
White House Interior Renovations Gilded and re-decorated portions of the Oval Office, Palm Room, and Lincoln Bedroom.
Rose Garden and Colonnades Paved over the historic grass lawn with a white stone patio (“Rose Garden Club”); replaced the West Wing colonnade’s Tennessee flagstone walkway with black granite.
Planned Monuments:
National Garden of American Heroes A budgeted $40-million (likely higher) project planned for West Potomac Park featuring sculptures of 250 notable Americans and himself.
Triumphal Arch ala Greek/Roman Emperors Proposed 250-foot monument on federal parkland near Arlington National Cemetery to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool A $16-million resurfacing and renovation project featuring non-competitive contracts and added water filtration systems.
East Potomac Golf Links Overhaul plans underway for the public golf course along the Potomac River.
Kennedy Center Underwent extensive stage, seating, and marble refurbishments alongside a short-lived board vote to rename the venue with his name.
Mount Rushmore Continued attempts to have his face on the sculptured memorial.
Unprecedented Resources & Spending for Military Marvels
HITLER
Nazi Germany spent an estimated $3–$4 billion (1940s U.S. Dollars), the equivalent of roughly $40–$50 billion today, on its Wunderwaffen programs, primarily the V-1 Flying Bomb and the V-2 Rocket.
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Jet Aviation Marvels – The Me-262 and Arado Ar 234 aircraft cost enormous hundreds of millions in German Reichsmarks that included building massive underground factories like the Weingut I complex to shield production from day & night Allied bombing raids.
Super-Heavy Super-Big Tanks & Artillery – Millions more in Reichsmarks were spent on impractical engineering projects championed by Hitler, including the 188-ton Panzer VIII Maus tank and the Schwerer Gustav, a massive 80cm railway gun that required its own dedicated rail lines.
TRUMP
In Trump’s 2nd term U.S. taxpayers have spent a historic $1-trillion++ in late 2025 and Trump has requested another $1.5 trillion for fiscal year 2027. This increased spending targets major force modernization, naval expansion, and enhanced troop compensation. This spending has been for minor “enemy” nations such as Iran, Venezuela, and Iraq, not directly against major superpowers.
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Drones, Missiles, Battleships, & Paychecks – Drones – The proposed budget, which triples current spending on drones to more than $74 billion, would mark the largest investment in the technology “ever,” as those weapons reshape the modern battlefield. Missiles – During the war in Iran, the U.S. has been firing off missiles at an “extraordinarily” fast pace, analysts say. To replenish those, the current budget requests a massive $53 billion for “critical munitions.” The single-largest line item, at nearly $18 billion, is the Golden Dome missile shield, a “system of systems” Manhattan Project-scale effort that combines ground-, sea-, and space-based interceptors. Battleships – The proposed budget includes more than $65 billion for 18 more battleships and 16 other support ships as part of the “Golden Fleet” initiative. That’s a nearly 140% increase over the budget last year, when the Navy was allocated $27 billion to build 17 ships. The budget also includes some $427 million for unmanned naval vessels and testing of their weapons systems. Troops – The budget includes a 7% pay raise for junior enlisted corps, and a 6% boost for mid-career military personnel. Some of the money, $57 billion, will go toward addressing ”failing” base facilities, including family housing, and fixing barracks that have long been deemed poor or failing. None of this includes repairs to the installations that have been struck in the Middle East during the U.S. war with Iran.
As Donald Trump has shown for many years, Adolf Hitler was also ruthless. Anything or anyone that gets in Trump’s way meant they/it were worth getting rid of or firing. However, as long as the selected, appointed high officials, the High Command is/was loyal to the death and obeyed everything the Supreme Leader directed, demanded or repeated verbally, they were in favorable graces and awarded lucrative benefits from Hitler/Trump. True democracy? No, far from it. Let me set the stage of these Hitler-Trump comparisons with a July 2026 speech to reporters by Tom Homan, White House Border czar and law-enforcement officer:
It is worth noting that Tom Homan was investigated for an accepted bribe of $50,000 cash in Sept. 2024 to secure government contracts during a potential second Trump administration. The case was dropped, closed in 2025 by President Trump citing insufficient evidence and the audio recordings of Homan accepting the bribe are now classified and sealed by the Trump administration.
Does the “Nazi Gestapo” shoe fit Mr. Homan, not just on your I.C.E. agents, but several other Trump-appointed agency directors and chiefs in his inner circles of loyalists?
An Appointed Inner Clique of Loyal Sycophants
HITLER
Hermann Göring – a German politician, aviator, military commander, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party. Göring and Himmler also worked together to set up early concentration camps for Jews and other Nazi opponents.
Joseph Goebbels – a German politician, the chief propagandist of the Nazi Party, and the Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler’s closest and most devoted sycophants, known for his fierce antisemitism and strict control over German media, arts, and information.
Heinrich Himmler – commander of the German Schutzstaffel (Protective Squadron), abbreviated SS, he created and controlled Nazi concentration camps and was responsible for the murder of more than 12-million people who were considered enemies by the Nazis.
Martin Bormann – one of Hitler’s closest figures, he was known for his bureaucratic acumen he served as Chief of Staff to Rudolf Hess and later as Hitler’s official secretary, where he exerted significant influence over party matters and military appointments. Bormann played a key role in enforcing anti-Semitic policies, including the Nuremberg Laws and the bureaucratic processes that facilitated the Holocaust.
Albert Speer – Chief architect and later Minister of Armaments, managing wartime industrial production. As General Building Inspector for Berlin he was responsible for the Central Department for Resettlement that evicted Jewish tenants from their homes in Germany.
TRUMP
Pete Hegseth – Secretary of War Hegsethhas faced accusations from lawmakers, military survivors, and media critics of misleading the public regarding the scope, progress, and impacts of the U.S. conflict with Iran. In three primary areas Hegseth has fudged the reality of casualties, U.S. base attacks, and distorted the progress & claims of the Iran War. Hitler’s war cabinet did the same thing.
Pam Bondi & Todd Blanche – both Bondi & Blanche have been legitimately accused by critics and lawmakers that former U.S. AG Pam Bondi & current AG Blanche made false statements and mislead the public regarding the handling of federal investigations, legal limits on judicial authority, and transparency surrounding high-profile records. Hitler often did not wish to know details or his cabinet often didn’t divulge them.
Kash Patel – FBI Director Kash Patel has faced intense scrutiny and congressional investigations regarding allegations of professional misconduct, excessive luxury travel on taxpayer funds, and inappropriate personal behavior. Hermann Göring did the exact same things.
Brendan Carr – Critics and legal groups accuse FCC Chairman Brendan Carr of legal and ethical impropriety, specifically highlighting political pressure on broadcasters, First Amendment violations, i.e. late night TV hosts, and alleged abuse of regulatory authority. Goebbels & Heinrich Müller (Chief of Gestapo) both directed near identical orders and arrests for Hitler.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – Secretary of Health & Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has faced public scrutiny and reports regarding historical allegations of sexual misconduct, non-disclosure agreements, and contested administrative decisions & health policies for public safety.Hitler’s personal doctor Theodor Morell & Karl Brandt along with Himmler all were tried & sentenced at the 1945-46 Nuremberg Trials for near identical conduct.
Kristi Noem & Markwayne Mullin – Kristi Noem faced key ethics inquiries and controversies involving family licensure intervention, travel habits, and federal department oversights including a state-level ethics board finding potential misconduct and federal scrutiny over agency actions. Markwayne Mullin’s political career has involved several high-profile episodes of aggressive behavior, behavioral inappropriateness, and fiery committee confrontations.
Tom Homan – White House border czar Tom Homan faced public scrutiny regarding a closed FBI bribery investigation, tax omission concerns, and oversight of aggressive immigration enforcement actions. Heinrich Himmler and his subordinates committed these crimes as well as arrested, tortured and executed “Undesirables” for Hitler & the Nazi Third Reich.
The Biggest Military Blunders of Them All
HITLER
Operation Barbarossa – the unprovoked attack on Stalin’s Soviet Union. Hitler’s operation against the USSR in June 1941 through January 1945 cost the Third Reich 5.1-million German soldiers dead and 4.5-million captured. The costs… Military Equipment – Hitler lost over 2,500 tanks and nearly 3,000 aircraft during the initial months of the campaign. Triple that amount for the following years in defending Germany against the Soviet push to Berlin in 1943-1945. Supplies & Materials – Vast untold amounts of the German army’s fuel and ammunition stockpiles were depleted with no quick victory to replace them or liquid reichsmarks in the treasury to build and rebuild German industry due to Allied air raids and continued army advancements in the South & West.
Total Strategic Failure – This cannot be overstated, Hitler bit off more than Germany could chew when he attacked the Soviet Union while still fighting in the West against the great powers of Britain & its Commonwealth & the United States. Hitler’s micro-managing, avarice, and hubris ultimately resulted in Germany’s collapse followed by its long recovery and reparations to this day.
TRUMP
Operation Epic Fury – the unprovoked attack on Iran. Though the cost in human life is lower than Hitler’s Eastern Front, in modern warfare today the costs are just as significant in many other categories, not just in human lives.
Uncounted Base and Assets Lost – Military experts and independent think tanks note that the official $37.5 billion figure is a significant undercount because it excludes long-term maintenance and regional repair costs. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) estimates that repairing the more than 20 U.S. military installations damaged by retaliatory strikes will add between $5 billion and $9.4 billion to the final bill. At least 42 U.S. aircraft have been damaged or destroyed. High-tech naval assets like the USS Gerald R. Ford require extended, multi-million dollar overhauls.Beyond taxpayer-funded defense spending, the conflict has twice driven up oil prices past $100 a barrel following disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. These disruptions have filtered directly to American households: According to the Brown University Iran War Energy Cost Tracker, Americans have paid more than $68 billion to $74.7 billion in extra costs for gas and diesel. National averages spiked approximately 30% to 40% over pre-war rates, frequently pushing pump prices over $4/gallon. Per-Household Impact: A comprehensive analysis by Moody’s Analytics indicates that when adding up defense spending, higher borrowing interest, elevated airfares, and basic groceries, the conflict has cost the average American household roughly $1,100.
The Broader Conflict: The war in Iran has cost the United States 18 to 20 military service members killed and 624 personnel wounded. One U.S. civilian contractor has also been killed. While U.S. casualties have remained relatively low compared to previous prolonged conflicts, the overall death toll across all factions is estimated between 8,975 and 18,309 total deaths. This includes thousands of Iranian military personnel and regional proxy fighters, alongside significant civilian casualties in Iran, including between 120 and 123 school children were killed in the February 28, 2026 U.S. missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran. In nearby Lebanon more than 4,300 people have been killed as a result of the regional conflict and fighting with Hezbollah triggered by the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, and more than 12,200 people wounded and maimed. And for what? Being an immediate imminent threat to the U.S. homeland?
As long as Iran feels they cannot trust anything said from Trump and his military hubris—a legitimate concern given his history of falsifying, flipping back-and-forth daily, and what his administration press releases contain and entail day to day as well as his “War Cabinet” states or not states led by Pete Hegseth—this conflict will continue indefinitely along with the soaring costs to average Americans.
What was all this waste for anyway? Was it because Iran was close to having nuclear weapons in 2026? No, that was disproven and debunked several months ago [citation]. And to add insult to injury for the U.S., now Iran will likely maintain control or significant influence via threats over the Strait of Hormuz, a consequence that Trump, his administration, and his “war cabinet” CLEARLY never considered or planned for. The lack of foresight and all that has followed from the reckless folly has been a colossal screw-up that even the idiot numbskull Adolf Hitler would envy. What a pity America that you have been shamed and repeatedly lied to by this current president and his administration. So now the question is upcoming this October-November during the primaries… Will you be gullible again or complacent again for a third or fourth time, and repeat history again?
Addendum5:55pm CST (UTC/GMT -5 hrs) —
I forgot to include American deaths caused by the 2019–2023 COVID-19, and remarkably still continuing in 2026, in my post here. Why? Because COVID-19 was a biological war or should have been declared as a serious biological war and enemy by the then sitting U.S. President Donald J. Trump. Astonishingly, absurdly, and callously Trump did nothing to prepare in 2019, then did very, very little from 2020 to January 20, 2021, (when Biden replaced him) to protect Americans from the invisible viral pandemic. Why? The lethargy showed by Trump and his administration to confront and combat COVID-19 with everything possible in order to save American lives was near identical to Adolf Hitler’s deep denial and complacency after the devastating loss of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, USSR in February 1943 and thereafter. Just like Trump, Hitler turned into a recluse as if nothing had really happened. Of course, that was the furthest thing from the truth and the worst reaction to take.
HITLER’S INACTION CONSEQUENCES
An estimated 150,000–200,000 German soldiers died during the Battle of Stalingrad itself, and an additional 35,000 to 40,000 of the roughly 91,000 captured German troops died soon after in Soviet prisoner-of-war camps. Approximately 2.5 to 3-million German soldiers died on the Eastern Front after the Battle of Stalingrad ended in February 1943 due primarily to the flawed micro-managing supremacy of Hitler’s incompetence and lethargy to reverse the front or quickly rescue those prisoners.
TRUMP’S INACTION CONSEQUENCES
Well over 1.1-million Americans did and have died from COVID-19, according to tracking data from federal health agencies and institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other independent organizations. In the Peak Years: The highest annual death tolls occurred in 2020 and 2021 before widespread vaccine and treatment adoption were finally pushed, developed, and distributed by the Biden Administration.
Those death statistics are more than all Americans who lost their lives in all of America’s wars combined in the country’s entire existence! 😲
The Professor's Convatorium 