As Trump Weighs Iran Strikes, He Declines to Make Clear Case for Why, or Why Now
With two carrier groups and dozens of fighter jets, bombers and refueling aircraft now massing within striking distance of Iran, Trump is threatening another attack. He is doing so without providing assessments about the urgency of the threat or any explanation of why he needs to strike again after claiming the nuclear sites he targeted had been “obliterated.”
Though Trump is largely fixated on the nuclear weapons program, at various moments he and his aides have cited a range of other rationales for military action: protecting the protesters that Iranian forces killed by the thousands last month, wiping out the arsenal of missiles that Iran can use to strike Israel, and ending Tehran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah. The two latter terror groups have also been obliterated.
Then there is the question of whether military force, the hammer Trump reaches for so quickly, can even accomplish those ends. Most of Iran’s near-bomb-grade uranium is already buried from the last strike, in June. And it is not clear how airstrikes would immediately aid protesters around the country or persuade Iran to stop funding terror.
Oh, right, Epstein. MAGA has been asking questions, but MAGA loves boom, boom so this may be enough to distract them.
Though Trump is largely fixated on the nuclear weapons program, at various moments he and his aides have cited a range of other rationales for military action: protecting the protesters that Iranian forces killed by the thousands last month, wiping out the arsenal of missiles that Iran can use to strike Israel, and ending Tehran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah. The two latter terror groups have also been obliterated.
Then there is the question of whether military force, the hammer Trump reaches for so quickly, can even accomplish those ends. Most of Iran’s near-bomb-grade uranium is already buried from the last strike, in June. And it is not clear how airstrikes would immediately aid protesters around the country or persuade Iran to stop funding terror.
Oh, right, Epstein. MAGA has been asking questions, but MAGA loves boom, boom so this may be enough to distract them.
