이게 보통 문신이 아니었다.
1. 보수적 기독교 근본주의자 피트 헥세스 비판. 티스덜의 글에서 울분이 느껴질 정도다.
정치평론가 사이먼 티스덜이, 국방장관 (전쟁부) 피트 헥세스와 트럼프를 비판했는데, 헥세스의 '광신적 근본주의적 기독교'를 지적했다. 헥세스가 국방부를 '(성경을 쾅쾅치는=광신적인 펜타곤)Bible-Thumping Pentagon'으로 만들려고 한다.
그가 가슴에다 '신의 뜻대로' 의미를 지닌, 문신을 새겼다고 함 (데우스 불트 Deus Vult)' 이는 십자군 전쟁 시절 '성전'을 뜻한다. 피트 헥세스는 2005년~2006년 이라크에서 보병 소대장으로, 2012년 아프가니스탄에서 작전 장교로, 군 복무를 했다.
티스덜은 헥세스가 두 번의 전쟁터에서, 동료들이 적들이 만든 '급조 폭발물 IED, Improvised Explosive Device)' 로 인한 사망으로, 이에 대한 트라우마가 그의 가슴 속 깊이 남아 있는 것 아니냐?고 묻는다.
그 트라우마를 없애기 위해서 헥세스가 이란을 마치 '가자 지구'처럼 만들어버리고, 야만인들을 다 없애버리겠다고 큰 소리치고 있다고 비판한다.
이러한 헥세스와 대조적으로, 트럼프는 병역의무 기피자인데, 군작전과 전쟁에 대해서 아는 게 없을 것이라고 전제하고, '급조 폭발물 IED를 피임 도구로 알고 있을 것이라고 트럼프를 조롱한다. 피임 도구의 약자는 IUD (interauterine Device)인데, 트럼프가 IED는 모르고, IUD로 착각하고 있을 것이라고 비웃었다.
2. 미국과 이스라엘이 도덕적으로 국제법 상으로 패배한 전쟁이다.
사이먼 티스덜은 이번 미국과 이스라엘의 이란 침략은, 미납 (Minab) 초등학교 여학생들과 선생님들의 사망에서 보듯이, 도덕적으로 법적으로 패배한 전쟁이라고 주장한다. 트럼프와 네탄야후는 처벌도 받지 않고, 자기 멋대로, 제네바 협정과 국제법을 무시하고 있다고 비판한다.
정의가 살아있다면, 트럼프는 11월 중간 선거에서 공화당은 참패할 것이다.
미국과 이스라엘은 이란과 레바논이 입은 피해를 보상해야 하고,
이란은 걸프 국가의 피해를 보상해야 한다고 주장한다.
3. 전쟁의 특징들
미국과 이스라엘의 압도적인 군사력에 기초한 '불비례적' 공습과 폭격.
이에 비해 이란은 군사력이 상대적으로 약하기 때문에 보복 공습을 하고 있다.
비대칭적인 군사력에 대한 이란의 인식.
이스라엘 군의 레바논 (헤즈볼라 패퇴라는 명분으로) 83만명을 이재민으로 만들었다 (3월 26일에는 100만명에 육박)
4. 이번 전쟁으로, 이란 내 강경파가 핵무기를 소유하는 방향으로 갈 수도 있다.
미국과 이스라엘의 폭격으로 사망한 알리 하메네이는, 이란의 핵무기 소유를 이슬람 교리와 상충된다고 해서, 핵무기를 소유하지 않았다. 그러나 이란 강경파는 파키스탄, 인디아, 북한과 같은 '핵보유국' 방향으로 갈 수도 있다.
Here’s the news from Iran – Donald Trump is making America lose wars again
Simon Tisdall
Humiliating failure now looms, as symbolically damaging to US global standing and national self-esteem as Afghanistan or Iraq
Sun 15 Mar 2026 11.22 GMT
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Donald Trump menaces the world. He’s global public enemy number one. He’s steadily losing the illegal war with Iran he started but cannot stop. His violence-addicted Israeli sidekick, Benjamin Netanyahu, is terrorising Lebanon. And ordinary people everywhere, their security threatened, face a huge economic bill for his reckless folly.
Add Trump’s war-making to his daily debasing of democracy, appeasing of Russia, punitive tariffs, climate crisis denial and flouting of international law, and it’s clear this White House travesty has gone on long enough. Americans must put their house in order and act decisively to restrain someone who endangers us all.
Trump is a man without a plan. He hasn’t the foggiest what to do next in Iran, deluding himself that he is in control of events. The more the US and Israel batter Tehran and other cities, the more defiant is the odious, unvanquished Islamic regime. US regional bases and Gulf Arab partners are sustaining significant damage from retaliatory strikes.
Iran has succeeded in closing (and is now reportedly mining) the strait of Hormuz, which Trump, astonishingly, failed to defend. Rising oil and gas prices are driving a global energy shock that harms international trade, fuels inflation and creates food and medicine shortages. Poorer countries will suffer most. But few will escape the Trump plague. He’s the new Covid.
Netanyahu’s worst instincts have free rein as Trump flounders. Unceasing, disproportionate Israeli air attacks are hitting Iranian homes, utilities, banks, cultural heritage sites and mosques. The attacks are said to be counterproductively rallying nationalist support for the regime.
In Lebanon, it’s the same criminal story: civilians killed, hundreds of thousands of people displaced, destruction, occupation – all supposedly necessary to smash Hezbollah terror. But this is something worse: it’s state terror. Compare it with unchecked Israeli settler depredations in the West Bank. The “greater Israel” project advances on all fronts, olive grove by uprooted olive grove, village by depopulated village.
Taking fright as markets tumbled, Trump half-tried to declare victory last week, but even he couldn’t sustain so big a lie. At least George W Bush had the courage of his (foolish) convictions in Iraq in 2003. Bush knew only a land invasion would achieve his aims. Trump lacks the balls for that. In Iran, he sought swift, painless victory from the air.
What he – and the world – have got instead is, potentially, another forever war. The regime will keep fighting, increasingly by asymmetric means; there can be no popular uprising while this continues. Israel wants to make Iran and Lebanon like Gaza: permanent aerial free-fire zones. And thanks to Trump, the US is pig in the middle.
Trump and his Bible-thumping Pentagon mouthpiece, Pete Hegseth, would prefer to declare “mission accomplished” sooner rather than later. It’s undeniable Iran’s military capabilities have been severely degraded, however this will not end well for Washington.
Humiliating failure looms, prospectively as symbolically damaging to US global standing and national self-esteem as Afghanistan or Iraq. Body bags are coming home. And the war’s financial cost is running at more than $11bn a week. Midterm election voters, watching prices rise, will not easily forgive its careless architect. Donald J Trump: making America lose again.
'Ghost town': Lebanon city deserted amid Israeli airstrikes – video dispatch
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'Ghost town': Lebanon city deserted amid Israeli airstrikes – video dispatch
The central issue of Iran’s suspect nuclear intentions remains unresolved. Its facilities have been “obliterated” not once but twice. Yet it retains a hidden stockpile of highly enriched uranium, plus scientific knowhow that cannot be bombed away. This stockpile might have been peacefully surrendered or diluted, had Trump not torpedoed negotiations.
Some hardliners want to copy North Korea and build nukes to ensure regime survival. To date, Iran has not taken that final step, blocked by a fatwa from the then supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Now he’s been assassinated, that may quickly change. If Iran does finally go nuclear, it could be Trump’s and Netanyahu’s doing.
The Iranian missile and drone threat is diminished but far from eliminated, as Tehran’s continuing strikes show. Pentagon boasting about “permanently” destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities is plain silly. The US is taking hits, and suffering casualties, at military bases across the Gulf as Iran learns how to exploit defensive vulnerabilities. Tehran is also holding proxy militias in reserve.
Hegseth’s ranting about “barbarians” and “savages” says more about him and his boss than his enemies. It seems the “secretary of war” may have had some traumatic experiences while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, where many US and UK soldiers were killed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In contrast, draft-dodger Trump probably thinks an IED is a contraceptive device.
The coming US defeat is moral and legal, too. Trump’s lying efforts to shift blame for the killing of more than 100 schoolgirls in a US Tomahawk missile strike in Minab on 28 February are utterly contemptible. Deliberate or not, Minab was a war crime for which those responsible must be held accountable.
In this context, it’s significant that Trump went to war without necessary congressional authority, flouts the Geneva conventions and ignores international law. US troops observe no rules of engagement. Ethically challenged Hegseth claims they can do whatever they want, with impunity. No, they cannot.
Trump’s “little excursion” will have big geopolitical consequences. Regime change, which he cruelly promised protesters, is slipping off the US agenda. It was always unrealistic to suppose it could be imposed from above. For his part, Netanyahu still hopes for regime collapse, not least because it may boost his re-election chances. He will want to keep on bombing Iran and Lebanon (and Gaza) when it suits him, regardless of whether Trump proclaims an end to the war.
Allies including Britain are dismayed and alienated by Trump’s arrogant refusal to consult and fatal lack of strategic planning, exemplified by his strait of Hormuz fiasco. He’s irresponsibly escalating the war, saying he is bombing Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal “just for fun” – which could further drive up global prices.
Simultaneously, he’s asking those same allies to get directly involved by sending warships to his rescue in the strait. Unsurprisingly, there are no takers so far. Meanwhile, Russia – “temporarily” released from US oil sanctions to Ukraine’s great detriment – and China are profiting from Trump’s bellicose bungling and disdain for global opinion.
If there is any justice left in the world, Trump’s Republicans will be punished in November’s elections. But that’s the very least that should happen. US and Israeli leaders should face prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity in national and international courts. Britain and other adversely affected states should demand the US pay compensation. Iran and Lebanon should receive reparations. And Trump should be impeached in Congress for his many gross abuses of power.
People may say this will never happen. But the point is, it should – and must. This is the universal standard to which even the most powerful leaders must be held, or else all is lost. Trump has almost three years left in charge, what else might he do if allowed to rampage on unrestrained?
Failing, flailing Trump poses a clear and present danger to the US and the world. Take him down.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/15/us-iran-war-donald-trump-failure
Here’s the news from Iran – Donald Trump is making America lose wars again | Simon Tisdall
Humiliating failure now looms, as symbolically damaging to US global standing and national self-esteem as Afghanistan or Iraq, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall
www.theguardian.com
