Netanyahu's gamble risks quicker path to Iranian bomb

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Marc Champion / Bloomberg Opinion

There are three immediate questions to answer about the war that Israel has started with Iran, all of which lead to the most important of all: Can this achieve Israel’s stated goal of ensuring, once and for all, that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon?

If it can, then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to launch Israeli jets against a much larger nation of close to 90 million people would, depending on the nature of the targets struck and level of civilian casualties, be justified on both strategic and moral grounds.

The destruction of Israel is a declared policy of the regime in Tehran and one it’s been acting on for decades. There’s no doubt, despite denials, that Iran’s uranium enrichment program is designed to produce weapons-grade fuel; it’s practically there, with a growing stockpile concentrated to 60 percent, a level far beyond any conceivable civilian use. So, even though Israel has a nuclear deterrent of its own, as a tiny “one-bomb” country it can’t take the risk of allowing such a hostile power to also have one.

But whether the air strikes can indeed succeed is a very big “if.” It’s more likely that Israel can do no more than delay Iran’s nuclear program by a few years. And if that’s the case, it becomes impossible to justify the certain bloodshed and unknowable consequences of starting this war, because it would at best gain no more than the diplomacy it displaced. Both the abandoned 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and any agreement that might realistically have come out of U.S.-Iranian talks that were due to resume on Sunday would do as much; only without loss of life, or the risk to regional stability and global markets.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-netanyahus-gamble-risks-quicker-path-to-iranian-bomb/

Kristof: Restraint best course of action for Trump with Iran

By Nicholas Kristof / The New York Times

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has bombed Iran in what may lead to yet another war in the Middle East, and the challenge for President Trump will be to protect American troops in the region and to stay out of this mess.

Netanyahu justified his latest military campaign by saying that Iran was a “clear and present danger.” And it’s true that Iran was enriching uranium to worrisome levels. It’s believed to be just weeks from having enough fissile material to make several bombs (although creating bombs and a way to deliver them would take much longer).

But a key reason for Iran’s increasingly dangerous course was the past colossal misjudgments by Netanyahu and Trump in their dealings with Iran. With strong backing from Netanyahu, Trump in 2018 pulled out of the nuclear agreement that President Barack Obama had reached that largely contained Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump apparently expected Iran to come crawling back and make concessions. Instead, Iran accelerated its enrichment of uranium. One former Israeli security official has described the decision to cancel the deal in 2018 as a “disaster,” and another has said it was a “historic mistake.”

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/kristof-restraint-best-course-of-action-for-trump-with-iran/

[Walleye]

1. Trump doesn't think anything is real. We had a great deal going. It was worked on very hard

Until asshole threw a giant monkey wrench into the works. He still fret about not getting credit for “all the good things he’s done“. I never heard Joe or Kamala or Barack complain about not “getting enough credit.” Trump‘s need for approval is pathological, considering he wants to break every rule in the book

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. Bibi

is a fucking idiot who is going to blow up the entire Middle East, if not the world, if someone doesn't put a stop to him---by any means necessary. And I mean ANY.