Trump Jr: “I ♥️ #MOAB”

I was incredulous at the media response to the US military’s decision to drop “the mother of all bombs” (America’s most powerful conventional – that is, “non-nuclear” – weapon) on ISIS targets in Afghanistan.

Why that surprised anyone is beyond me. Think about it – and although this is funny, I’m being serious. You’re talking about a President who until last week was apparently unaware that the US possessed unmanned missiles. Now you tell this same President that you’ve located a concentrated ISIS position in an area where a strike isn’t likely to cause any collateral damage (at all). Then you tell him one option is something called a “MOAB.” And although “MOAB” actually stands for “Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb,” it’s affectionately called “the mother of all bombs.” And this is a President whose favorite word is “bigly” and whose second and third favorite words are “big” and “league” – in that order.

So you know, what exactly did you think was going to happen next?

Of course the official line is this decision wasn’t ultimately Trump’s, and this wasn’t an attempt to send a message to Russia and North Korea, and this was definitely the appropriate weapon for this particular job, and on, and on. But come on, folks. Donald Trump got an opportunity to make good on a “bigly” campaign promise (“bomb the hell out of ISIS”) in a “big league” way (by dropping something called “mother of all bombs”) at a time when the entire world is already fearful of what he’s going to do next.

So yeah, he dropped a “big” bomb.

“Bigly.”

“Big” deal.

Well, the media was impressed and do you know who else really liked it? Junior. Who decided to express his approval via Twitter, some hashtags, and a cute bomb icon.

No, really:

Bomb the hell out of ISIS: ??

Another promise kept #Moab ? #maga

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 14, 2017

Yes, #MAGA.

As CNN noted on Saturday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he approved of the strike.

But former President Hamid Karzai was a little less enthusiastic:

Unfortunately, the US presence in Afghanistan is moving us towards more war and destruction as signaled by its latest #WMD use on our…1/2

— Hamid Karzai (@KarzaiH) April 15, 2017

2/2 military. This is not the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous…

— Hamid Karzai (@KarzaiH) April 13, 2017

I’ll finish that: “…weapons.”

As it turns out, one lawmaker who spoke to CNN this morning agreed, saying Trump used “a shotgun to kill a fly.”

*****

Oh, and don’t forget: actions have consequences…