It is beginning to dawn upon the Short Fake Trump administration and the AIPAC lobby how disastrous it has been to let finally Israel call the shots for the US military. This is what happens when you hand tribalists who have never in their entire history had any responsibility for actually running a society the keys to the sort of power that is usually in the hands of civilized peoples.
Things really hit the fan earlier today after Iran’s largest natural gas field, the South Pars, was struck by Israel. This field reportedly accounts for 75% of Iran’s natural gas production and 80-85% of its electric grid. This of course came directly after Israel had assassinated Iran’s Secretary of the Supreme National Council Ali Larijani in a strike that was said to have also killed upwards of 100+ civilians in the vicinity, as it leveled the apartment block he was in, and possibly even surrounding buildings.
This led to Iran immediately escalating with strikes against energy targets in both Israel and the Gulf, particularly hitting Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas hub said to be the world’s largest. The strike was successful and was said to have done massive damage to the facility, which took 14 years to build and some experts are writing is irreparable.
But the most significant development from this sudden firestorm is the revelation that the US did not in fact authorize or participate in these unilateral Israeli strikes, despite earliest reports indicating they were done in tandem. Rumors filtered in throughout the day until Trump finally confirmed it himself in a social media rant wherein he appeared to tongue-lash Israel for its impudence, while simultaneously threatening Iran with more barbaric destruction.
Reports continue surging forth about Trump being furious at Israel for igniting this regional firestorm which has wrought economic havoc that continues spiraling out of control. Israel is obviously escalating the conflict deliberately in order to ensure no off-ramp exists, and that US—and preferably its Gulf allies—commit to a total and decisive destruction of Iran.
Israel is doing this via two simultaneous strategies: first by eliminating all the “moderates” and rational people within Iran’s leadership to ensure that only hardliners remain who will push for maximum punishment against the region. And second, by crossing Iran’s “red lines” in hitting its most sensitive economic and energy sites in order to spur Iran’s retaliation against equally critical sites throughout the region to ignite as big a firestorm as possible which can engulf everyone and coerce the entire world into “finishing off” Iran once and for all.
But as even leading neocons like Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol have begun to realize, Israel’s actions are at least as likely to inspire the entire world into finishing off Israel once and for all. Especially since everyone knows it is Israel, not Iran, that is the main source of conflict in the region. Even if Iran is defeated, then Israel will immediately proceed to war with Turkey.
The problem is that now that Israel has started this war, neither the USA nor the Israelis can call it off, because no amount of escalation dominance is capable of forcing Iran to stop. And the retardery of Trump threatening Iran for responding to the actions of Israel is astonishing in its pointlessness. If you’re the dog, then you damned well better control your tail.
The USA informed Iran that they consider their military objectives achieved and are preparing to exit the conflict soon, noting that Israel still has some operational tasks to complete before its withdrawal from the war. However, Iran completely rejected this message, stating that it is not interested in its content and will continue the war until it achieves its own long-term goals aimed at preventing the recurrence of such conflicts.
I don’t see what could effectively prevent the recurrence of another such conflict without a) the withdrawal of the US military from the region and b) the cessation of US military support for Israel.