{"id":53778,"date":"2025-06-15T07:45:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T15:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=53778"},"modified":"2025-06-15T07:45:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T15:45:06","slug":"israel-gets-what-it-wants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/15\/israel-gets-what-it-wants\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Gets What It Wants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

On Friday, I awoke to the news that Israel has bombed Iran, focusing on nuclear enrichment facilities and military targets. For the U.S. and Israel, war always finds a way.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is claiming that Israel alone is bombing Iran, but of course Israel is using U.S. weaponry, intelligence and logistical support, and political cover at the United Nations. The planes may be Israeli, but the U.S. government is complicit in the attacks, just as the U.S. government is complicit in genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n

At Eunomia, Daniel Larison has an informative article <\/a>on the \u201cinsanity\u201d of the Israeli\/U.S. attack on Iran. A few points come to mind here:<\/p>\n

+ Israel is allowed to have 90-200 nuclear bombs, but no other country in the region is allowed to have any. I guess that\u2019s because Israel is so clearly peace-loving?<\/p>\n

+ Iran is the latest target of Israel\u2019s quest for regional dominance. As far back as 2003, if not earlier, Israel (and U.S. neocon \u201cwarriors\u201d) always wanted to go to Tehran. Baghdad was supposed to be both a cakewalk and a stepping-stone. Two decades and several disasters later, these \u201creal men\u201d finally achieved their dream of war with Iran.<\/p>\n

+ The success of Israel in getting the U.S. government and military to do its bidding is nothing short of phenomenal. Iraq? Greatly weakened. Syria? Greatly weakened. The same with Libya. And now it\u2019s Iran\u2019s turn to be \u201cgreatly weakened,\u201d i.e. bludgeoned with bombs made in the USA.<\/p>\n

+ Iran will likely strike back. U.S. media will frame these attacks as \u201cunprovoked\u201d and \u201canti-semitic.\u201d See this grimly amusing article<\/a> by Caitlin Johnstone about future headlines at the New York Times.<\/p>\n

+ One thing is certain: Israel, like the U.S., has an irrational belief in the efficacy of bombing, an efficacy largely disproven by military history.<\/p>\n

+ One might recall how the U.S. conspired with Britain in 1953 to overthrow Iran\u2019s democratically-elected leader, replacing him with the Shah, leading to 25 years of a repressive police state until the Shah was finally overthrown. I wonder how Americans would feel if Iran conspired in 1953 to overthrow Dwight D. Eisenhower as U.S. president, replacing him with a petty dictator who ruled through secret police?<\/p>\n

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Chickenhawk Graham says \u201cGame on.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Here are a few responses<\/a> by prominent U.S. politicians to Israel\u2019s attacks on Iran. I just love the \u201cgame on\u201d reference by Senator Lindsey Graham. Has there ever been a more abject and delusional chickenhawk than him?<\/p>\n

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said<\/a>, minutes after reports of the operation began, \u201cProud to stand with Israel.\u201d Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) soon followed, saying, \u201cGame on. Pray for Israel.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Cotton later added<\/a> that \u201cWe back Israel to the hilt, all the way,\u201d adding that if \u201cthe ayatollahs harm a single American, that will be the end of the ayatollahs.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), said \u201cIsrael IS right\u2014and has a right\u2014to defend itself!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said, \u201cWe stand with Israel tonight and pray for the safety of its people and the success of this unilateral, defensive action.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI am also praying for the brave U.S. service members in the Middle East who keep America safe \u2014 Iran would be foolish to attack the United States,\u201d Risch continued.<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. members of Congress seem to think they swore an oath to Israel, not the U.S. Constitution. And, given all the money they receive from AIPAC and similar pro-Israel lobbying groups, maybe they have sold their souls to Israel.<\/p>\n

Once again, all they are saying is give war a chance.<\/p>\n

William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. On Friday, I awoke to the news that Israel has bombed Iran, focusing on nuclear enrichment facilities and military targets. For the U.S. and Israel, war always finds a way. The U.S. is claiming that Israel alone is bombing Iran, but of course Israel is using U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[758],"class_list":["post-53778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"All They Are Saying Is Give War A Chance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53778"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53785,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53778\/revisions\/53785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53778"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=53778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}