“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” Albert Einstein
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
I loved playing cards when I was growing up. I have fond memories of playing Canasta with my grandmother and Bridge with my parents. I even formed a bridge club with my friends in high school. Playing Hearts is still a favorite, especially with my grandkids. The games have always been fun, challenging, and fiercely competitive. There have never been any real stakes—just the satisfaction of winning and the disappointment of losing.
As I grew older, I gravitated to poker and black jack. Some of my favorite memories are sitting with my friends at the black jack table or with my son-in-law at the poker table making small time bets. I often lost money, but I always put limits on the amount I was willing to gamble. There were nights, of course, when I walked away feeling gleeful or glum depending on how much I had won or lost. As the stakes went up, the playing became more intense as consequences escalated. My principles were to respect the rules of the game and to exercise real restraint in my level of engagement. Sometimes, my competitive spirit led me to lose perspective.
Watching the Apple TV series on Vietnam made me think of playing cards as a metaphor for what’s happening in the world, particularly after Trump told President Zelensky that the US held all the cards. Revisiting the memories of Vietnam and living in the present moment have been particularly wrenching experiences, given how death and destruction have been trivialized to a card game with no limits on losses.
I served in Vietnam in 1968, the year in which there were more US casualties than any other year in a war that spanned more than a decade. I arrived in March during the Tet Offensive. Martin Luther King was killed in April. Bobby Kennedy was killed in June. Not only was Vietnam an unnecessary war, but also the assassinations of MLK and RFK were tragic and irreplaceable losses. 1968 was not a good year.
What makes watching this series on Vietnam so painful is that I’m now watching evil repeat itself in spades. American involvement in Vietnam began in 1963 under JFK. After years of frustrated attempts to end the war, LBJ kept sending more troops. By 1968, there were 536,000 US troops with boots on the ground. The surprise, combined with the offensive by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong in January of that year, changed not only the psychology among the troops on the ground but also the mood of the students who were vulnerable to being drafted and the parents who didn’t want their children sent involuntarily into a war that made no sense. Americans lost faith in victory. Soldiers returned unceremoniously to a divided America—I remember taunts of “baby killer.” Friends and family were torn apart by differing beliefs. AND we learned that all our hard power was not enough to overcome the soft power in Vietnam. By 1975, we raced against time to evacuate our remaining personnel before the embassy was overrun. We thought we had a winning hand until we didn’t.
Sadly, we did not learn from our mistakes. From 2001 to 2021, we had a repeat experience in Afghanistan. From 2003 to 2011, we played a similar hand and ended up losing once again.
What were the results of all those “winning hands?” The communists are now firmly in control of Vietnam. The Taliban have imposed strict Islamic laws in Afghanistan. Iran has more influence in Iraq than the U.S.
What were the human costs of these conflicts? An estimated 2 million people were killed in the Vietnam War, as many as 1 million people in the Iraq War, and about 300,000 in the Afghanistan War when military and civilian deaths as well as direct and indirect causes are included. The toll in human suffering, PTSD, and disabilities make the costs even greater.
So as we watch the wars between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, as well as what’s happening in Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Myanmar, Columbia, Mexico, the Congo, etc., we need to pay close attention to the real truth of what’s going on. And we need to be careful about overplaying our hands. Bluffing doesn’t always work, even if we think we have all the cards.
In a recent article in the NYT, Margaret Renkl implores us to exercise more vigilance to the truth of what’s happening in the U.S. She encourages us to watch carefully what is happening as result of suppressing information, not accelerating flu vaccines, cutting Medicaid, nurturing the alliance with Putin, not responding to the pace of climate change, denying reproductive rights, and recklessly implementing DOGE recommendations without Congressional authorization. I might add watching indicators like cuts to Social Security and Medicare, immigration levels, deportations, the price of eggs and gas, military spending, budget deficits, debt levels, hate crimes, and violence around the world. You may want to add what you are watching to the list.
What Trump has done, instead of an orderly reshuffling, is to dump all the cards on the table and to scramble them together—creating chaos, confusion, and cruel consequences. In his arrogant and solipsistic mind, he thinks he holds all the cards and commands all the aces: money, military might, machoism as well as the rules of the game. Or he believes he has a full house: the Supreme Court, Congress, government agencies, the Armed Forces, and foreign dictators. In either case, he is wrong. What he really holds are jokers, wild cards, and a few low-digit cards. So far, the courts and State Attorneys General are still upholding the laws of the land. Time will tell if they hold or fold.
To me, a strong hand consists of an objective view of truth, humanistic values, fair laws, and individual as well as organizational courage. The leaders of the European Union are putting together that hand in an attempt to call Trump’s bluffs and bullying. Here’s hoping they are successful. Sadly, however, he has just paused all aid to Ukraine. I don’t know if he will take back that card or not. I also don’t know if Trump’s behavior is all performance or is simply plunder. I do know that he has masterfully tapped into multiple sources of resentment, and he has freed his base (45% of Americans) to unlock whatever restraints they felt had been imposed on them. I also feel very sure that his behaviors are driven by power, not by principles.
As a card player, I was never very good at bluffing. I think my non-verbal cues gave me away. I was never accused of bullying, however, and I always have tried to play the hand I was dealt as well as possible. (Full disclosure: I acknowledge that life has dealt me a very good hand.) All I can do now is watch carefully and speak as truthfully as I can.
The point of this post, however, is not to determine how well anyone plays their cards in a game largely determined by luck. The point is that President Zelensky is playing a hand that is stacked against him. He is fighting solely with Ukrainian troops; Russia is now employing North Korean forces. He is also fighting an opponent with a much larger, well-armed military force that is receiving assistance from China and Iran. The Ukrainians are fighting desperately and valiantly with what they have. Yes, NATO has generously supported Ukraine, and the US has contributed about $120 billion in aid (not the $350 billion that Trump claims), but Ukraine is on the front lines for democracy and freedom around the world. AND, the stakes for Ukraine are much higher. Ukranians are playing with lives, not chips. The real consequences for them are death and destruction, not dollars and mineral deposits. And what does Trump want in return for his support? Groveling and gratitude. Shameful.
In his 100-minute address to Congress, Trump bragged about all the other audacious bets he was making on tariffs, taxes, the environment, education, etc.—all of which could result in limitless losses despite his bravado to the contrary. He is exactly the kind of person casino owners love to lure into their gambling establishments. It might be well to remember that Trump’s casinos in Atlantic city went bankrupt while other casinos made millions of dollars. Those who invested in Trump’s “business acumen” suffered all the losses while Trump walked away lining his pockets with their money. Now, the world’s biggest autocrats are luring Trump into their orbit, and I fear that America’s “investors” will bear the loss as Trump continues to enrich himself. He is the ultimate self-dealing con man.
I hope Ukraine is able to survive the realignment that Trump is promoting. I’m hoping the liberal democracies around the world are able to reverse the shift to right-wing, authoritarian dictators. I’m hoping Zelensky won’t be forced to grovel in exchange for U.S. support. It is us who should be grateful to him. Finally, I’m hoping that all of us can play the cards we have been dealt with wisdom and courage, with objective vigilance and reasonable restraint. May it be so.
