War Games or All-Out War? The Attacks on Iran are Pure Madness
The warnings came, but most chose to ignore them, convinced that Trump was bluffing and using the military threat as a bargaining chip, typical of a bully with little or no diplomatic ingenuity. Very few commentators, including the author, could truly believe that Trump would be foolish enough to start a war with Iran when so many factors were working against the US and Israel that they would come out of it no good. But Alastair Crooke’s prescient words just a few days ago, warning of the “momentum of war,” will be remembered for years to come. The macho posturing, the chest-thumping, and the deplorable insecurity of weak, middle-aged men who have never fought in war themselves, determined to advance their own political agenda while using uneducated young men as victims, ultimately succumbed to common sense.
Of course, the so-called peace talks the US was conducting with Iran were a hoax, and these attacks were proof of that. Israel’s initial attack, a cowardly and disgusting bombing of a school that killed more than 50 children, is typical of Israel and could have been a sign that Netanyahu had lost his temper and wanted the show to begin. It could also have been a test of sorts, to see if Iran would respond immediately and show no mercy to US posts in the region. But just as the attack is a shameful provocation, so too is the Western media’s refusal to properly frame the incident. Perhaps Trump’s own State of the Union address, in which he hilariously claimed that Iran was about to attack Western countries with a nuclear weapon, set the tone for extreme parody, writes Martin Jay .
No one wants this war, except Israel. No one in the West supports the initiative, and so Trump is isolated. But as the hours passed on Saturday and we watched Iran’s reaction, we saw no follow-up action from the US. What we seem to be witnessing is a small-scale, fake war, possibly being used as part of a propaganda campaign to justify a later US attack. Most of what we read in Western newspapers is a systematic, long-standing barrage of lies, based on a 30-year-old story that “Iran is just weeks away from producing an atomic bomb,” and so we shouldn’t believe the media will report it accurately.
When America wakes up on Sunday morning, however, it will be Trump who will be asked by reporters whether he was aware of the attack and whether he actually approved it. This trick question, which he can’t quite figure out, could give us a clue about what happened while he was asleep, although the American public, naively, might believe he was unaware of the Israeli attack on the school. The rest of the world won’t buy that, especially considering that he posted a speech on his own social media platform Friday evening warning Americans that people will die.
What’s truly interesting is how the Israeli and US response has been delayed, suggesting Trump wants a very different approach to Iran than he did earlier in June of last year, when an intensive attack lasted more than 12 days and ultimately depleted both Israel’s and the US’s ammunition supplies. Experts suggest that another war with Iran following a similar pattern would have to be postponed for about a week. Does Trump believe a longer, more drawn-out war, extending well beyond the midterm elections, could be advantageous? A much slower, more measured war, initially seen as an Iranian trump card, could be a way for Trump to remain in power while keeping Israelis happy. It’s difficult to see clearly what the objectives are, but few believe the war is in America’s best interests.
Jeffrey Sachs summarized it well on social media. “It could be because of what’s in the Epstein files… it could be blackmail, it could be corruption… but it’s not about America’s interests.”
It’s entirely possible it’s all three. But it seems Trump is trapped by Israel, as he disregards every democratic process, ignores international law, and has a shocking disregard for diplomacy on a scale few can imagine. Where is the moral ground for killing 36 little girls in their school, when even Trump himself, in his social media tirade, talks about destroying Iranian missiles? This isn’t the Trump we know. Has Bibi completely taken over the US?