Moonshot hope amid despair of Trump’s Iran war

On Wednesday evening, two historic things happened, almost simultaneously.

First, four courageous astronauts successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center aboard Artemis II, which will attempt the first lunar flyby in more than 50 years.

It was a stunning sight, and one that turned out more than three million people just who watched the official NASA launch broadcast alone.

It recalled a nostalgia for the days of Apollo, which excited and inspired so many Americans, and for just a moment, stirred up the kind of patriotism and hope that’s felt hard to come by in recent months.

In a parallel universe this would have been the perfect moment for the president to address the nation with a soaring speech marking the moment. We could have seen the kind of speech John F. Kennedy gave in 1962, inspiring an anxious nation to believe in possibility and progress amidst a backdrop of Cold War fears.

But that’s not the universe or timeline we’re living in. America is at war, and we don’t really know why.

President Trump finally delivered his first national address more than a month into his self-proclaimed — and unauthorized — “excursion” into Iran, an incursion that’s resulted in numerous U.S. casualties, strangled the free-flow of oil, created turmoil in the markets and world economies, and created fear among the U.S. and our allies that our actions will have dangerous ripple effects in the region and here at home for months, possibly years.

But a speech that was meant to satisfy the concerns of a skeptical public — two-thirds of which disapprove of Trump’s war and don’t believe he has a clear plan — failed to meet the mark.

Despite Trump’s rah-rah declarations of victory and decimation, no one with even a cursory knowledge of Iran’s history and capabilities could believe this reckless and aimless war of attrition is anywhere close to being over.

Offering no real plans to recover the roughly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium buried in the rubble at Natanz and Isfahan, offering no real plans to liberate the people of Iran from a regime that’s thus far no different from the last one, offering no real plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the world’s free flow of oil, Trump blustered, boasted, and balked, all while wagging an indignant finger at our allies for not jumping into this ill-advised quagmire with us.

And in fact, in his attempt to brag about how short this war has lasted, his comparisons to other lengthy conflicts like Vietnam and the Iraq war only reminded Americans how costly and consuming this one is likely to be.

The speech also comes against the backdrop of Trump’s threats to withdraw from NATO, the post-World War II treaty that’s kept Soviet and other tyrant states from attacking the Western alliance for more than 70 years.

While Trump may not understand its importance, the world certainly does, and is collectively rebuking his reckless efforts to weaken the body that is crucial for ensuring our own national security and stability and that of Europe.

But times feel fraught, without question. A corrupt, ignorant, and self-motivated wannabe dictator is prosecuting an ill-advised war using American blood and treasure, all while threatening to isolate our nation and endanger others even further. He’s wreaking economic havoc at home and across the globe, and without much care or consideration.

If we look at this mess Trump’s created too closely or for too long, it feels impossible to have hope for a better tomorrow. Perhaps that’s why now, more than ever, we need to look up and away, toward the stars, where actual heroes are leading the way. We’re all cheering you on, Artemis II.

S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.