Even as Senior US Diplomats and Mid-Eastern experts, aka
Trump’s golfing partner and Son-in-law, held on-going negotiations over Iran’s
nuclear ambitions, Netanyahu and Trump launched their own Pearl Harbor attacks
on Iran. Iran claimed to have just offered terms that were better “deals” than
Obama and Biden got, deals that should have appeased Trump and Netanyahu. But
when Trump is fixated – in this case, on using his and Pete Hegseth’s new toys—like
it or not, war is what you’re going to get.
Provoked? Some might argue so – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Beirut
barracks bombings of 1983. But certainly not self-defense; no one attacks in
self-defense of negotiation. On our part, a war of choice. Iran has retaliated
with attacks on Bahrain, Dubai of the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi
Arabia. Yemen threatens to strangle the Straits of Bab al-Mandab, imperiling
world trade; Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, driving up oil prices. Even Turkey may
be drawn in. Russia has sounded off but so far only with words. Europe remains
silent.
We have started a broad, Mid-East war without authorization,
without our Western once-allies, with faulty rationale and childish hopes that
out of the ashes of a repressive theocracy will bloom a popular democratic
republic. Oh, what a bold and visionary Mr. Trump – idiot!
What is more likely to emerge is a state only a Stephen
Miller could respect – one rooted in the power of an ideologically driven, resentful,
military-militia seeking revenge on Israel and her allies and determined to dominate its Arab neighbors.
The cork isn’t likely to be put back into this bottle for
years to come.
BTW: the Lesson? Don't muck about in the Middle East unless you know exactly how you will get out of the muck. (The Dardanelles. Afghanistan -- for Russia, for England, for the US. Iraq.)
