The president has backed down, but how long will "peace" last?

Has death and destruction simply become televised entertainment for MAGAmaniacs?

TACO TUESDAY … Wow, just when we were about to settle into our Barcaloungers to watch the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air and the permanent destruction of an entire civilization, the Prince of Peace, Donald Trump, rode to the rescue and announced that our chief war objective, the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, had been achieved.

And never mind that the Strait of Hormuz was actually open and functioning before we killed 175 Iranian schoolgirls with a Tomahawk missile that Donald Trump suggested was actually fired by Iran.

Whether the schoolyard massacre was a tragic mistake or an intentional act is an open question, but since our intelligence was such that we knew exactly what the former Ayatollah had for lunch before he was sent into eternity, it’s hard to believe that the same intelligence would not know that this was a school.

Then again, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that we would no longer be bound by all those silly rules of engagement, so we can continue to debate whether all those young girls were “collateral damage” or innocent victims of a brutal attack.

SPEAKING OF PISTOL PETE … The biggest loser in all this was indeed Pete Hegseth, who insists that he now heads the Department of War and that those carrying out his commands are no longer “defenders” or “peacekeepers,” but “warfighters.”

No doubt, he was excited about using some of the new toys in his arsenal and releasing the destructive footage on Fox News.

Wiping out an entire civilization and bombing it back to the Stone Age was clearly something he desired to help fatten his resume.

Thank God he was overruled.

Hegseth asked us all to pray for our troops, which I will of course continue to do, but he didn’t ask anyone to pray for the families of the 175 schoolchildren who will no longer be going home to Mom and Dad.

HAPPY EASTER … Never in a million years did I think I’d wake up on Easter morning, the most glorious day on the Christian calendar, to see the President of the United States dropping an F-bomb on his social media site.

Meanwhile, the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo, noted, “This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. Jesus does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen, your hands are full of blood.’ ” (From Isaiah).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LATE SISTER … My sister JoJo, who died of cancer on her brother JJ’s birthday in July of 2024, was born on Holy Thursday in 1944.

She did not go home to Mom and Dad, however, since Dad - Army Major James J. Dunning - was far, far away, in Italy, while serving in World War II on the day she was born.

After spending the early part of the war at Fort Benning, Georgia, training soldiers for battle, he shipped out for Europe on Christmas Eve of 1943.

He never once told a war story after returning home to Portland and he never once mentioned the medals he was awarded for his valor in combat or the injuries he received while serving his country.

Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com