God bless the troops

American air crews especially, but sailors and soldiers too, are putting their lives and limbs at risk today and the days to come. The same is true of Israeli troops and civilians. War never proceeds without awful costs. But this war, prosecuted now by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, was in fact launched by the Ayatollahs in Tehran 47 years ago, and has humiliated American presidents from Jimmy Carter to Joe Biden -- Barack Obama most egregiously, when he paid $1.7 billion to the Ayatollahs in actual dollar bills, euros, and other foreign banknotes, all crated up and flown to Tehran. Good for Messrs Trump and Netanyahu! I trust that Messrs Putin and Xi take the lesson. Comical though he often seems, this American President is no clown.