Right, so Donald Trump claims America is prepared to strike Iran again whenever he feels like it. Anytime he wants. Because Trump approaches regional security like a man shaking a petrol can beside an open flame. But there's just one small snag in this latest display of dementia-addled orange bravado. The American families who were forced out after Iranian missiles and drones struck Bahrain last time are still in exile, waiting for someone to declare it safe again, so they can actually go back to Fifth Fleet HQ. The ships are there. The admirals are there. The missiles are there. But the families and the school kids are not. Bahrain has just revealed the other side of Trump's bravado. America may still be able to attack from the Gulf, but it can’t rebuild the supposedly safe, permanent American community around the US command centre for those attacks. When your family has been forced to evacuate, you’re no longer ordinarily resident, are you? You’re no longer living; you're simply serving on a given call-up. And of course this all comes on top of the recent news, which I covered the other day regarding Kuwait, that showed the Pentagon cutting the number of Americans left exposed there. Jordan showed the rising anger at being used as an American launchpad and then handed to Iran as a target. Many in that country right now want the Americans out now as a result. Bahrain, meanwhile, has taken the story into something of a surreal detour, complete with missing families and a base that's actually only permanent these days, if you're a warship. Bahrain was supposed to be home for many Americans. Permanently resident there. Now it's just another address on the Pentagon's growing list of places you wouldn't send your children unless you didn’t like them. No lasting peace. No end to the danger around the Gulf bases. No sign that the countries asked to host America's war have stopped paying the price. But anytime we want, he says. As if Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan were just a string of gas stations lined up around Trump's personal bombing range. His idea of 'readiness' is about as dependable as his reading comprehension: selective, self-serving, and disconnected from reality.