The Iran War is a personal and political diversion.
The first point to make on the war on Iran is that, as is generally agreed, this was a war of choice rather than a choice of necessity. Nuclear enrichment and nuclear bombs were far enough away that the Israelis could have, to use the phrase they used with Hamas, could “mow the grass” every few years to keep that [rps[ect remote. Intercontinental missiles are said to be a decade or more away. And supporting regime change always meets the problem of which authoritarian regime will you :free:, given that the track record in recent years, in Libya, Afghanistan and elsewhere, do not seem to make countries small d democrats. So what is the reason for war now?
Rachel Maddow thinks the Iran War is a payoff to all the Arab nations who have given lavish gifts to the Trump family. But that is to forget that the Sunnis hate the Shiites and need no encouragement only lavishing the Trumps because that giving tribute is the ordinary way potentates do business even if the Constitution tried to eliminate emoluments to American leaders. Or maybe Trump is bored having accomplished his major agenda in the Big Beautiful Bill and simply wants to engage in grandiosity as in the Big Ballroom, But Trump has always been careful about being careful to fight wars only if he can easily win or drop it as an issue when it becomes bothersome. Trump does not take on Russia orNorth Korea. He threatens Canada and Greenland and just drops them if they seem resistant, just moving on, as he has also done, it seems, with tariffs when the stock market thought on Liberation Day that it believed he really meant it and withdrawing ICE because of bad publicity. Trump;s virtue is only to fight wars you can easily win and that was the case with Venezuela and, apparently withIran, who was told that the Iran missiles had been sufficiently used up in last year’s war between Iran and the combined US-Israel war that Israel would not see considerable damage and that has come to be the case. I don’t think Trump has the stature to endure a difficult war where the outcome is uncertain as was the case with Churchill. Trump is to be praised only with the minor virtue of Trump Always Chickens out unless he can be te bully. No subtle diplomacy to wean Iran out of its isolation, but then again, earlier administrations had done that as when Obama got a nuclear deal with Iran which Trump promptly abrogated.
Look at the real reason for the war as having already accomplished its results and therefore is to be offered as motivation. Trump always changes the topic whenever he is in hot water whether because he has no attention span or is being sly. The Jeffrey Epstein caper, which had a long everyday preoccupation for a long time disappeared on Saturday, as well as falling poll numbers and the prospects of the midterms. Shift the topic to foreign policy and that might mix things up so that Republicans will go back to the fold even if Republicans are adverse to foreign adventures. But the timing is everything and this ploy may be too early. Remember that GHeorge H. W. Bush was the conqueror of Kuwait but was defeated not too much later by Bill Clinton. Foreign policy is ephemeral to the public especially in a war where the American people are not endangered, which they were in WWII and the Cold War. This war doesn’t have much staying power for the public and so the persistent domestic issues will resurface.