The war with Iran is not only a perfect metaphor for Trump’s presidency and the MAGA movement in general, but it is also revealing of a basic truth that MAGA opponents can never quite seem to grasp: Trump’s supporters do not now, nor have they ever, looked to him for consistency, coherence, dignity, wisdom or even decency. 

To the Editor:

In reading the official press release from March 31, “USDA Prioritizing Common Sense Forest Management, Moves Forest Service Headquarters to Salt Lake City,” one would think, “All right, common sense!” 

To the Editor:

In Western North Carolina we’ve been insulated from the horror and tragedies across the country. We haven’t seen the ICE raids, but sadly I recently learned that ICE is around. We don’t have the details but in Asheville a friend of one of one of my friends was picked up and sent to Atlanta. 

To the Editor:

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There has been a coordinated plan by people such as those in the Heritage Foundation to dumb down regular people in the USA since the Reagan era. Alvin Toffler even said in his book, “The Third Wave,” that industrial era schools were designed to teach students to be obedient, on time and do rote repetitive work. 

To the Editor:

Abroad, the Trump Administration defies international laws, violates the United Nations Charter (that the U.S. helped develop) and threatens world peace by recklessly initiating wars with sovereign nations that pose no imminent threat to the United States or our allies. 

The United States has once again plunged into a war convinced that righteous purpose, overwhelming force and moral certainty will deliver victory. But history — ancient and modern — keeps teaching the same lesson: macho crusades fail. They fail because they are built on arrogance, miscalculation and the belief that military might can substitute for strategy. The current U.S. war in Iran is not an exception. It is the latest chapter in a thousand-year pattern of powerful nations mistaking zeal for wisdom. 

To the Editor:

How did President Trump (and his rubber stamps in Congress) get us into this war? The way he manages everything — he lies, and his worshippers in Washington silently nod their heads in obedience. Congressman Edwards, shame on you.

Was this dangerous conflict justified because Iran was about to attack the United States with guided missiles and nuclear weapons? Of course not. Back in June, Trump himself bragged that he had totally destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability for years to come and crippled their missile forces. Now he says that Iran’s supposedly destroyed military was on the verge of attacking America. Lies. This reminds us all of the weapons of mass destruction that led us into the disastrous war in Iraq. Those weapons of mass destruction never were found because they didn’t exist.

What a coincidence. Netanyahu is facing criminal corruption charges and is battling with the Israeli Supreme Court, and Trump is facing the Epstein coverup, threatened with his guilt being exposed. So the two of them decide to wreak havoc in the Middle East. The ultimate distraction — war.

Do we need to go over all the lies that this man has told with complete consent of his allies in Congress? One despicable falsehood occurred during his State of the Union speech. He lied that the young Ukrainian woman horribly murdered on a train in Charlotte was a victim of someone who “came in through open borders.” Lies. The murderer was born and raised in Charlotte and was a diagnosed schizophrenic, hearing terrible voices that led him to this horrible crime. Trump knew it had nothing to do with open borders. He used the suffering mother of the victim as a tragic prop, to justify his cruel border policies.  

Remember Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio? Or “Little Johnny goes to school in the morning, and comes home in the afternoon little Jane?” Who did the sex change operation? The school nurse or the principal? Or “illegals vote by the millions.” All lies.

And now an unconstitutional war with no end in sight. How much blood will be spilled?

Pray — and vote.

Steve Wall
Waynesville

The United States cannot keep breaking the rules of international law and then congratulate itself for the results. That is the uncomfortable truth exposed by the 2026 military operations in Venezuela and Iran. Both actions removed brutal, destabilizing leaders — one captured and jailed, the other killed. Many around the world understandably welcomed those outcomes. But the way the United States achieved them violated the very legal order that keeps the world from sliding toward permanent conflict. 

This past Sunday at church, someone quoted the old Greek proverb, “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.” As the speaker continued to make a connection with the proverb and the future of our church, I quietly sat with the words and let them wash over me. 

To the Editor:

Out with the old, in with the new: time for reflection, perhaps resolve; certainly time to separate fact from fiction, truth from lies. As Lord Chesterfield believed, “that refuse of fools and cowards.”