Why did we bomb Iran? The media is playing dumb while pretending there’s a scandal involved…
White House rationale for war keeps shifting – Washington Post
Trump administration has still not settled on reasons for going to war with Iran – The Guardian
Rubio’s Rationale on Iran Strikes Gets Messier, as Congress Demands Answers – Time Magazine
Actually the rationale is pretty abundantly clear. Apart from the 47 years of Iranian attacks on Americans, the Iranians themselves provided the rationale.
President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said that Iran claimed it had enough enriched uranium to make 11 nuclear bombs before the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on the country over the weekend.
Witkoff told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday that Iran’s negotiators had said to him and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, before the strikes that the country controlled roughly 460 kilograms of uranium at 60% enrichment. Witkoff said that the uranium could have been enriched to the weapons-grade level of 90% within a week to 10 days.
“Both the Iranian negotiators said to us, directly, with, you know, no shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60%, and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs, and that was the beginning of their negotiating stance,” Witkoff told Fox News.
Regular readers know that I’m no fan of Witkoff, and he’s certainly no hawk or warmonger.
The Iranian message to Trump was, much as to Obama, either accept our nuclear problem or else. They didn’t consider that the ‘or else’ might not be what they were expecting.
The media’s pretense that there’s some complicated rationale for the war is an attempt to get away from the simple fact.
The Obama nuclear deal accepted that a nuclear Iran was inevitable. Trump didn’t. There were two ways that could go. Trump could change his position. Or Iran could change theirs.
Neither one happened. And so we’re bombing Iran.
