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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August 2018)
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"How do you spell ICE in German? GESTAPO." (S. Jonas, July 2025)
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"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
"Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
"Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
"Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me." Pastor Martin Niemoller (c. 1946)
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War has been a feature of human society from just about the beginning of human societies. In my view, war is a constant for homo sapiens because of all the species on Earth it is the only one which does not sustain its existence by simply taking the elements which support life directly from the environment. Rather, for survival, homo sapiens must convert one or more elements found in their environment into other substances, matter, and so forth. Over time this process has of course become increasingly complex. I have written about it at some length (surprise, surprise) here: Click Here.
While conflict-over-elements-of-survival was originally likely one-on-one, they of course eventually became tribe-on-tribe, and then, as human societies became more complex, over time the conflicts evolved (or rather devolved) into what came to be known as "war." Over time, wars have had multiple causes. This one, the Trump War on Iran, is different, which we shall get to below. But first, let's review the causes of some of the major wars which have occurred on both the European and North American Continent over the last millennium or so.
In 1066, very famously (at least for English-speaking folk) William the Conqueror, of the area of France known as Normandy, in what might be called a "Reverse D-Day," landed on the English beaches of what would become the English Channel, and eventually established himself as the King of England, through what came to be known as The Norman Conquest. The cause of that war and its aftermath was the eventual establishment of a joint French-English kingdom. Its exact geographical nature and who would be the ruler or rulers caused a series of wars between what we now known as England and France over several centuries. But the cause or causes always had to do with land, power, and treasure.
The Norman Conquest did not settle things between England and France of the time, and eventually led to what came to called The Hundred Years War (which actually spanned the period between 1337 and 1453). Summarizing it, History.com says:
"The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) was a complicated ongoing conflict between the kingdoms of England and France, rooted in territorial disputes and control of the French crown. Spanning about 116 years during the 14th and 15th centuries, it started when English King Edward III, grandson of Philip IV of France, was denied his claim to the French throne and launched a retaliatory attack.
"Although the fighting wasn't continuous, with long periods of peace, many battles occurred during the war. Famous clashes, such as the Battle of Agincourt, [at which the English forces were famously led "into the breech, dear friends," by the famous English actor with a French name, Laurence Olivier] showcased the might of the English forces, while strong leaders, including Joan of Arc, inspired the French to fight for their land.
"Ultimately, France claimed victory, driving the English out of the country, except for the strategic town of Calais on the coast of the English Channel. The drawn-out war exhausted both countries but strengthened the French monarchy and led England to shift its focus to expanding the British Empire."
Again, a major, very long, European War over land, treasure, and control.
In the late 16th century there was an on-again/off-again war between England and Spain, fought largely at sea, over access to and control of the expanding European colonies in the Americas. It included the famous (made for the movies) Defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. And once again, over land, treasure, and control.
The "30 Years War" was, as the intro. here from the Wikipedia entry on it, says:
"The Thirty Years' War is part of what historians sometimes call 'The General Crisis' of the mid-17th century, a period of sustained conflict and unrest in areas ranging from Ming China to the British Isles, Tsarist Russia and the Holy Roman Empire." Given its geographical scope, it could have been called the first World War. But since it did last for precisely 30 years (1618-1648) it has come down to us as The Thirty Years War. Among its other outcomes was the division of what, in the late 19th century, eventually became "Germany," into approximately 300 tiny, principalities, duchies, municipalities and what-have-you's. which division lasted until the unification of the Prussian Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I and the famous Chancellor Bismarck (who, by-the-way, in 1883 established the first predecessor of what came to be known as national health insurance in every major power other than the U.S.). Again, land, treasure and control.
Skipping a century or so, going to the 18th century, we come to the "Seven Years War" (1756-63), known from the British perspective in North America as "The French and Indian War." Like "The Thirty Years War," it spanned the globe. Among other things, it established British control, for the most part, of the nation we know as Canada, which up until that time had been settled by both the British and the French. At the war's conclusion, large numbers of French-speakers were expelled from Canadian territory. Some of them reached the large French colony which stretched along the length of the Mississippi River, called Louisiana. And it is in present-day Louisiana that "Cajun Country" --- see James Carville --- exists, originally settled in the 18th century by French expellees from Nova Scotia.
It was of course that "Louisiana Purchase" by President Jefferson which was essential to the eventual establishment of the continental United States. But that expansion, as is well-known, could not have taken place if the extermination of a large proposition of the Native Americans who lived there, along with a major source of their food supply and much life-support materials, like their pelts, had to take place. Again, war for property and in this case in many areas the minerals which lay below it, as well as the rivers for transport and water.
Picking up the pace here: the Napoleonic Wars clearly had a substantive purpose: for the French, expanding their Empire and for the other European powers bring that empire to an end. The U.S. Civil War clearly had a policy reason, for the South, opening up the Western Territories for the unlimited expansion of slavery, especially by the state's like Virginia, in which slave-owners were making more money selling slave children West than they were from raising cotton. The Franco-Prussian War finally established the Prussian Empire as the major power in Europe. World War I was about both European power and limiting the overseas possessions of the Prussian Empire (a grandiose name which really carried weight only in Europe). We do not have to go into detail about World War II, the Korean War, "Viet Nam," or Afghanistan, except to say that they all presented major policy issues and major questions of Great Power rivalries, in the latter two fought primarily through proxies.
But then we come to Trump's War on Iran, with his ally, an expansionist Israel. The latter clearly has policy goals, some of which have to do with Iran, some of which have to do with Palestinian Expulsion. As for Trump, he initiated a surprise attack, while negotiations to deal with a variety of issues were going on. The only similar historical event, leading to a major war, that I can think of, was the surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, while negotiations to deal with the thorny issues of Japanese access to oil and other raw materials in south East Asia were going on in Washington. Just as the U.S. negotiators were given no warning about the coming attack, apparently, neither were the Japanese negotiators in Washington.
But Trump had an entirely unique reason, at least at the outset, for going to war on Iran. Of course he lied about his reason(s) for starting the war. Does the Sun rise in the East? And he has boasted about it being by surprise (thus differing from all of the major wars described briefly above). But why did he (and it was clearly "he" who did it, without any detailed consultations within his "government") really do it? Well, at least at the beginning, one word has echoed around the world, even to a retired senior diplomat friend of mine in the Middle East: "Epstein." There is much attention being paid to that matter, e.g., Click Here; Click Here; click here.
And so, it is a definite possibility, a possibility which stands in ultra-stark contrast to the causes of the list of prior major wars presented above. But then, just about everything Trump does in "governing" the United States --- beginning with his ignoring of the Constitution on so many levels --- stands in ultra-stark contrast to the way his predecessors governed.
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Post Script: At a news conference with the visiting Japanese Prime Minster Trump was asked whether the attack on Iran was by surprise. He said that it was. He then turned to the Prime Minister and said words to the effect of "Well, you attacked us by surprise at Pearl Harbor." Forget the overwhelming embarrassing moment he created. In terms history, he was upholding that Japanese action as a good thing. But then that's Trump.
(Article changed on Mar 20, 2026 at 10:36 AM EDT)
