Trump’s War and Its Brown Casualties

The news of the latest casualties from trump’s war came while he was chillin’ at the FIFA World Cup final. He promised retaliation. Since trump’s attack on Iran on February 28, his undeclared, non-approved war by Congress has cost an estimated $2 billion per day. There have been thousands of casualties between the two countries, but it was the youthful face of 19-year-old Isabella Gonzales that struck an ironic chord for me.

Pvt. Gonzales was barely out of high school. I doubt that she fully understood what it meant to volunteer in an imperialist military. It’s questionable if she could make the connection between her sacrifice and the plight of people of her ancestry being targeted by the same government that put her in harm’s way. She was just a kid, a kid captivated by the empty promises of the U.S. military.

The trump regime has been selling wolf tickets for almost six months now, boasting of the obliteration of Iran’s military capabilities. Iran seems to be holding its own, between conducting its own airstrikes on U.S. allies’ bases and controlling the Strait of Hormuz. While trump pursues his vanity projects, the cost-of-living soars and U.S. allies are backing away from a dangerous, erratic man.

The regime is at war at home and abroad, and it’s time to rein in the war criminals who are being allowed to run this country into the ground. Seventeen U.S. service members have been killed in the war with Iran. In 2026, at least 30 people have died in confrontations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These deaths are collateral damage in trump’s quest to rule the world and assert himself as the fascist leader he openly aspires to be.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving to work with his brother and two other passengers in Houston when ICE agents forced him to pull over, then fired a fatal shot through the window. Less than a week later, Joan Sebastián Guerrero was murdered at an intersection in Biddeford, Maine. The deaths of Gonzales, Araujo, and Guerrero underscored an Instagram post that stated the obvious: people of Hispanic descent can die for this country but will never be accepted as citizens.

We can expect more deadly conflicts with ICE as the midterm elections get closer. We should prepare for ICE at polling sites. We should anticipate ICE prowling targeted areas to make their quota for the privately-run concentration centers.

This is not just about the erasure of Brown people. Indigenous people, people of African descent, and even people of Asian descent have been in the crosshairs of Aryan barbarism. The anti-war sentiment must be ramped up as part of the struggle for democracy. Understanding our shared experiences as victims of white, Christian colonialism can only fortify our strength in building a new multi-racial reality in the U.S. and the world.