9/5/2026

My Dear Friend & POTUS, DJT,

How ARE you? Happy about the latest job figures? Disappointed that today’s rain is preventing you from playing golf? Miffed that your efforts to stop mail in voting seem to be failing? Agitated that people are critical of you for saying that EFO is “small potatoes?” 

SoW, I encourage you to apologize for minimizing the deaths of the 18 service members who lost their lives in your conflict with Iran. You will notice that I am avoiding the use of the word “war” since you & your VP have decided that hitting over 18000 targets in Iran does not constitute a “war.” 

Have you adopted the Correlates of War definition of war which includes the criteria of at least 1000 battle-deaths? If so, you forgot that you need to count the 3000+ deaths in Iran. 

If we don’t call it the “Iran war”, what should we call it? According to CBS, military personnel have been told to stop calling it EFO & are supposed to say something like “overseas operations in the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility.” That’s too much of a mouthful, don’t you think?

I suggest that you avoid this linguistic challenge & just call it OVER! Stop using organized violence to intimidate. It’s not working with the leaders of Iran. They are not chastened. It’s causing energy prices to remain high & it’s costing lives. We’d all be better off if you sent our ships back where they came from. 

You might feel better, too. You’d have one less thing to worry about.

OoM, I see that MAH is going to Vietnam as part of his effort to get the ASEAN members on his side. Do you think President To Lam (TL) will be persuaded to amp up trade with Burma? 

Speaking of TL, will you be hosting him at the WH when he visits the US later this month? You might be able to figure out how to address our trade deficit, but I’m not sure the Vietnamese can afford American goods. An average worker making about $350 a month doesn’t have much spare cash. Americans aren’t going to give up their phones anytime soon, so maybe best to forget about a trade balance with Vietnam.

I hope you find some joy in your day.

BYBS,