Bomb away!

There's carpet bombing and then there's the Mother of all Bombs, just one of them. Different ways to prosecute a war. You do wonder why the Trump military decided to drop a single Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon (MOAB) to hit Isis in Afghanistan yesterday. But under Trump it's all about signals. A blast at Isis means a warning blast to Kim Jong-un, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, maybe Putin and anyone else in the Trump crosswires. Big bomb signal. While it certainly attracted the world's attention, it does somehow seem a little over the top, although General John Nicholson, the US commander in Afghanistan, insisted it was the right munition to use because they wanted to blast all the tunnels Isis had been constructing. I don't expect General Nicholson was thinking of signals to anyone else. But Trump definitely was. He described yesterday's MOAB bombing as an "event". It sure was. The point is, what is going on right now? Under Obama, there was plenty of military action. Don't forget the proliferation of drone killings of terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya etc. But did anyone venture to suggest to Obama that it was time for a MOAB. I somehow doubt it. The military always speak of the immense care taken over every strike to make sure "innocent" people are not killed or wounded. But war is war, and every general accepts that there is always a risk of civilians being killed. But does Trump worry about that sort of thing when he goes to bed? I'm sure he does. He was, after all, emotionally horrified by the sight of children suffering after the chemical weapons attack in Idlib, in Syria. But does he worry as much as Obama did? I think the MOAB "event" says a lot. He is now President Donald MOAB Trump.