Trump is now caught in the oldest trap of modern warfare – believing a swift, surgical military operation will yield quick, enduring political results. The Soviets did it in Afghanistan; the US in Iraq in 2003; Putin did it in Ukraine, and is still fighting. Whatever force a military fails or succeeds in applying at the start, the people it is attacking have greater commitment to defending their lands and homes.

The White House may have rushed into this, seizing the opportunity for a decapitation strike, provided by Israeli intelligence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has very different objectives regionally, and a long US involvement against Tehran suits his desire for an Iran in rolling collapse that is no longer a threat. But the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28 has caused as many problems as it has solved.

  • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    They’ve backed on tons of things before without admitting any wrongdoing, I don’t see how this is different

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The implication I haven’t seen explicitly mentioned in the article (which it should be! Bad article) is “there is no way for Trump to stop the war without losing face and thus his power

      basically what I was trying to get at. But I’m not sure that it’s a matter of losing face, and rather that Netanyahu is holding some damning evidence (of the epstein files variety) over him.

      as mentioned on other posts, the easiest way to deal with blackmail material is to just release it all.