Trump’s art of the deal? Get Israel to bomb Iran

Late on Friday, June 13 came the news we kinda expected. Donald Trump thought Iran deserved Israel’s massive strike.

“I gave Iran 60 days [to do a nuclear deal], today is day 61,” Mr Trump told Axios. “They should have made a deal.”

He seemed approving, even smug about Israel’s decision to deliver Iran its most devastating blow since the Iraq invasion 40 years ago. Soon after Israel’s attack made headlines around the world, Mr Trump noted that Israel used “great American equipment”. He appeared not to care that Israel’s prime minister had inaccurately described the attack as “a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival” and had boldly promised the operation would continue for “as many days as it takes to remove this threat”.

Which means what?

A forever war, like on the people of Gaza?

Hostilities until Iran breaks? Or until there is regime change?

The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols offers a trenchant critique in an X thread of the Israeli claim this is a “preemptive” strike.

Mr Nichols, incidentally, has a 2008 book titled Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War.

Here are some fragments from Mr Nichols’ X posts (though it’s worth reading the whole thread):

“In tradition and international law, a ‘preemptive’ attack is a spoiling attack, meant to strike an enemy who is *imminently* going to strike you.”

“What’s going on right now are *preventive* strikes, which are usually NOT permissable in law or tradition. This is striking an enemy far in advance, because you believe time and situation is favorable to you. That, for example, is Japan striking the US in 1941.”

“…unless Israel intends to show some immediate threat that had to be countered. But since they admit this will be a multi-day defanging of nuke sites, probably not gonna fly.”

Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com