What do you do when you’re in a position requiring you to speak in public — a lot — but you have a very limited vocabulary and a third-grade-level command of your native language (in this case, English)? Well, that’s easy. You do what you probably did all through school: you copy the smart kids.

In this case, the smarter kid happens to be Vladimir Putin, and the cheater is . . . well, you know:

Donald Trump has made a big deal out of trying to decide what to name his month-long incursion (which he has called an “excursion”) into Iran. Sometimes it’s a “war”; but when he’s having one of his more lucid moments, and he realizes that a real war would have required Congressional approval, then it’s not a war — it’s a “military operation,” necessitated by an imaginary imminent threat and thus not requiring anyone’s permission.

What he actually said, at the annual fund-raising dinner of the National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday, was this:

“I won’t use the word ‘war’ because they say if you use the word ‘war,’ that’s maybe not a good thing to do. They don’t like the word ‘war’ because you’re supposed to get approval. So, I’ll use the word ‘military operation,’ which is really what it is. It’s a military decimation.”

– Donald J. Trump

*. *. *

Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that he just admitted to having started an illegal war, let’s look at the term he chose to use instead of calling a war a war.

Who remembers February 24, 2022, when Vladimir Putin’s military invaded Ukraine? You know — the “excursion” that continues to this day?

Yeah, that’s the one.

Well, do you also remember what Putin called it then, what he still calls it today, and what everyone in Russia is required to call it? Not a “war,” but a “Special Military Operation.” That is its official name, and woe betide anyone who dares to suggest otherwise.

So either Trump got the idea from his trusted friend Vladimir, or they actually think alike. Either way, it’s a scary experience, hearing POTUS mimicking POTUSSR.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
3/27/26