By James E. Jennings*
ATLANTA, USA | 7 May 2026 (IDN) — The proud chants USA! USA! USA! have quieted down a bit in recent weeks following the ugly, over-the-top rants against Iran by former game show host and failed casino owner Donald John Trump and his acolyte, former Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth.
Their profane, boastful threats of wiping out an entire civilisation have embarrassed most Americans. Civility, even in wartime, can be restored by putting adults back in charge.
Americans have always thought we were decent, law-abiding, fair and courteous people. Wars should be entered into solemnly and prayerfully, as Roosevelt did when he announced that “A state of war exists between the United States and the Empire of Japan,” and ended gravely, as when Japan surrendered formally on the Battleship Missouri.
General MacArthur merely announced with decorum and reserve, “These proceedings are ended.” Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg is the model of propriety, dignity, and humanity, even during our bloody civil war.
Not so with the wild stream of barroom invective, threats, and curses from America’s leaders, especially from Trump and Hegseth, the Secretary of War, as he likes to call himself.
Their language was so shameful, crazed, obscene, so much over the top, that even some of the staunchest, flag-waving supporters of the former MAGA coalition, from Republican members and former members of Congress to former and present FOX network hosts, have objected vociferously.
Here’s the reason this is so important: the people standing in stadiums at ball games taking the pledge of allegiance to the flag know that they have every right to be proud of their country—but it’s only because most Americans are decent, law-abiding citizens believing their country has often been on the right side of history, humanity, and morality.
Nothing could be further away from that than the obscenity, foul language, and curses from the White House and the Department of Defence. It doesn’t help that religious language, images of Jesus, and verses of scripture from the Old Testament have been twisted to support the “merciless” killing of Iranians as Hegseth advocated.
People in Iran have also resorted to religious images, especially of Ali, Son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the main figure revered by the Shi’a, and of the Martyr Hussein.
The wisest thinkers in history have warned against hubris, or excessive pride, as a force that brings down strong nations and individuals. Many Americans who don’t even blink at Washington’s rampant corruption are keenly offended when the nation’s honour is impugned.
For the Administration to lie so obviously and blatantly about the 175 or so schoolchildren killed on the first day of the war with Iran, claiming that Iranians did it to themselves, bothers the conscience of most Americans. That does not comport with our national pride or sense of honour.
An important book, Destined for War: The Thucydides Trap, was published by Graham Allison, the former head of the Kennedy School at Harvard. Among his astute observations derived from Thucydides, who chronicled the 431-404 BC Peloponnesian War, is the fact that national honour is a key element in both going to war and achieving peace.
A sense of propriety, or rightness, governs public support for a war and may heavily influence who persists in the conflict and who wins or loses. Even if partially applicable to today’s conflict, it is likely to be hugely determinative in the outcome.
Few experts believe that this war is over, even if the White House peddles the notion that “peace is at hand” or that a temporary truce has been achieved. The dishonour of the US leadership’s profanity and its launching of war without a clear rationale, along with the “merciless” bombing of Iran, offends the morality of most American citizens.
Iran’s citizens, on the other hand, have reasons to claim that they are unjust victims of war, even if many do not support their Islamist government.
Probably nobody in the Administration or on TV will talk about honour and shame. Still, it will likely remain an unspoken subtext in the coming months, as the world faces an increasingly prolonged period of global distress, whether on the air-sea-ground-cybernetic battlefield or in the minds and hearts of people around the world.
A better solution is to negotiate a settlement, return to international law, pay reparations if necessary, and allow Iran to rejoin the family of nations.
*James E. Jennings is President of Conscience International. He has led earthquake relief teams to Iran and organised US Academics for Peace conferences at universities in Tehran and Qom, meeting with three successive Iranian presidents and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. [IDN-InDepthNews]