Trump threatening war on Iran is terrifying, all the more
because of his partner in would-be belligerence, Bibbi Netanyahu.
Netanyahu's military advisors advised against opposing Obama's
nuclear treaty with Iran, and against Israeli military action against Iran. No
doubt they are advising similarly now. And yet. . .
As for me, I don't understand how Netanyahu skirts the
obvious fact that war with Iran would catastrophic for his country, no matter American
involvement. Through Hezbollah, comfortably ensconced in Lebanon, Iran has
thousand of increasingly advanced missiles targeting Israel, including its population
centers.
Does Netanyahu imagine an invasion of Iran would be as
simple, in the first place, as the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein, though
that too, after the initial, simple, and predictable victory for American arms,
redounded with long-term, catastrophic consequences we're still feeling?
Does Trump believe his rhetoric, according to which the
Iranian people are just waiting for the American whistle to rise up and
dispatch their onerous Islamic regime?
Don't we
know that worst kind of demagogues, real or aspiring, are those who believe
their own rhetoric?
There's much madness afoot here, both Trump's and
Netanyahu's, and more, to my mind, Netanyahu's than Trump's. What, in the short
term, does the United States risk in military engagement with Iran? Washington,
NYC etc. are beyond the range of Iranian missiles.
Tel Aviv, it's just the perfect solution, the perfect bulls eye.