Years ago, we posted a page from The Tuttle Twins and the Golden Rule that showed the cycle of blowback—how violence, even when justified as retaliation, almost always guarantees more violence in return.
Pretty simple, right?
It’s a concept most kids quickly understand: if you hit someone, they’re likely to hit you back.
The internet, of course, had thoughts.
Some people praised the message, but there were many who accused us of being weak, unpatriotic, or even evil for suggesting that bombing foreign countries full of strangers we’ve never met might not be the answer.
People were calling for entire cities to be “wiped off the map.” One guy said we should keep bombing “until there are none of those people left.” It was open bloodlust—coming from people who, in most areas of life, probably see themselves as moral and good.
Back then I couldn’t help but wonder… how different is that, really, from the chants of “Death to America” we see on foreign news clips? The flags may be different, but the hatred sounds the same.
War sure has a way of numbing empathy.
Over the weekend, President Trump ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, and once again, we’re watching the same crowd that talks about the sanctity of life and limited government cheer on a decision that could spark the next regional—or global—war.
Whatever the justification, this is definitely not an “isolated strike” or a one-off action.
Most Americans don’t know that we’ve been meddling in Iran for decades.
They don’t know that in 1953, the CIA overthrew Iran’s elected leader and installed a leader they felt was “better” for the Iranian people (and one who would be more easily controlled by the US and its allies). We cover all of this in our Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies, in the chapter on Operation Ajax.
That one event—hidden from Americans for decades—sparked a chain reaction that’s still playing out today.
It makes you wonder if maybe they don’t just “hate us for our freedom,” after all…

This is why Ron Paul has warned us constantly about blowback. When you interfere in other countries (even if you have the best intentions) there are always consequences. They may be delayed by months or even years, but they are always delivered.
We wrote The Tuttle Twins and the Golden Rule because we wanted to help parents teach their kids a principle many adults seem to have forgotten—that might doesn’t make right, and that a cycle of retaliation and escalation is a recipe for perpetual conflict.
People get so caught up in choosing sides—Team Red vs. Team Blue—that they lose sight of the fact that war always comes with a body count.
Of course it’s never the people in power who pay the price.
It’s regular people who are a whole lot like us. People who just want to go to work, feed their families, enjoy their days off, and build a safe and peaceful future for their kids.
I wonder how many people cheering for war know that this is what Tehran looks like? Do they know they have ski resorts there?
I suspect they don’t actually want to know what Tehran looks like. It’s easier to call for the obliteration of a country when you don’t have to think about a city like this being reduced to rubble.
I once had a conversation with my daughter about war.
I told her that sometimes world leaders get angry with each other, and when they can’t agree, they send soldiers to fight on their behalf. Cities are destroyed. Families are broken. Kids—just like her—die.
She thought about that for a minute and then asked, “Why don’t the leaders just fight each other and let everyone else live?”
Out of the mouths of babes.
Support for acts of war shouldn’t depend on which president is in power.
This isn’t about Trump, or Biden, or whoever’s in office next. It’s about a system that keeps demanding our obedience, our tax dollars, and our children as fodder for their war-machine.
If you’ve read our books, especially The Golden Rule or True Conspiracies with your kids, you know that we’re trying to help parents raise a generation that asks better questions than the one before it—a generation that knows history, that understands unintended consequences, and that doesn’t mistake blind loyalty for patriotism.
Because real patriotism isn’t about supporting every war your government wages.
It’s about holding your leaders accountable when they make decisions that could get a whole lot of innocent people killed, or that destabilize the peaceful and prosperous future you’re trying to build for your kids.
We simply have to do better.
— Connor