How the Israeli Tail Wags the American Dog

"One prominent rationale for the Israeli-American attack on Iran is to bomb the country into friendliness to the US and Israel. Very few believe this will succeed. Iran, a country as big as Germany, Britain, and France combined, has a population of 93 million, more than triple that of Iraq when the United States tried, even with a massive army, to transform it into a US ally."

"President Trump ran two successful presidential campaigns with a populist foreign policy platform of promising 'I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars' and denouncing the 'endless wars' pursued by his predecessors in Iraq and Afghanistan. He now appears to have jettisoned his 'America First' foreign policy with no strategic rationale."

"Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that the primary answer to the question of 'Why [attack Iran] now?' was that US war-making decisions were effectively being driven by Israel. 'We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces...'"

The US attack on Iran lacks strategic rationale for American security. Iran's missile program posed no foreseeable threat according to US intelligence assessments. The operation contradicts President Trump's campaign promises to end endless wars and pursue an 'America First' foreign policy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that US war-making decisions were effectively driven by Israel's planned actions against Iran. The stated goal of bombing Iran into friendliness mirrors failed strategies in Iraq, where massive military intervention failed to transform the country into a US ally. Iran's size and population make such transformation unrealistic.

Read at The Nation