Israel and the U.S. are up a creek without a paddle. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:
“You either die a hero, or you live just long enough to become the villain.”
— Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight.
Too many people are trying to downplay last weekend’s response from Iran to Israel’s attack on their consulate in Damascus as some kind of “Wag the Dog” event. While I do agree there was a certain level of theatrics in the entire scene, to think this wasn’t a major geopolitical event is the worst kind of cynical cope.
Usually that type of detached cynicism is reserved to Millennials, but when I see folks in my age cohort doing this I become far more worried that everyone’s in denial to a dangerous degree. I was contacted by Sputnik News to discuss the Biden administration’s options and potential response via sanctions on Iran among other things.
While Biden signed off on a bunch of toothless virtue signaling, the reality of the post-Israel/Iran exchange is far starker.
Like when Trump assassinated General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, Iran reacted with just the right amount of force, bloodying US forces in Iraq, showing off a little as to what their missile arsenal is capable of, and leaving the ball squarely on Trump’s side of the court to either pick up or ignore.
Trump, smartly, left the ball where it lay.
Iran’s strike on Israel, as others have pointed out quite effectively, was designed to show the Israeli people who support Benjamin Netanyahu’s unhinged, in my opinion, response to the October 7th attack that they can be gotten to.
“To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness, which mankind now enjoys…Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government – and all blessings which flow from them – must fall with them.” –Jedidiah Morse (August 23, 1761 – June 9, 1826)