US President Donald Trump managed to do what he had accused his predecessor Joe Biden of doing: getting the USA involved in a ‘forever war,’ when he ordered airstrikes at three Iranian nuclear facilities, even after they had been pounded for the last week by Israeli bombers and drones. That he had done so reflected the failure of the Israeli bombardment to achieve its aim of eliminating Iran’s ability to enrich uranium to weapons-grade. After about 20 years of warning that Iran was months away from making a nuclear weapon, Israel has finally got the USA to intervene militarily on its side. The issue of Iran’s nuclear potential will be of importance in the USA, because it is still a matter of debate whether Mr Trump acted constitutionally or not, and memories have still not faded away of how the USA invaded Iraq, toppling its President, Saddam Hussain, on the pretext that he, despite the destruction of the Osirak reactor by an Israeli air raid, he was developing a nuclear weapon. Despite a prolonged US occupation, no traces of the alleged activity was found, in accordance with the International Atomic Energy Agency report before the invasion. This time, the USA does not have any boots on the ground, perhaps to avoid the embarrassment of finding nothing.
Apart from the constitutionality of his action, there is bound to be some resentment of how it has been mainly to Israel’s benefit. Though the Israeli lobby remains immensely powerful in Washington, Israel’s brutality in Gaza has finally turned the tide of opinion of the man in the street. The need to get involved in a war that Israel started, may not be easily discernable by the US voter. Even some voices in Trump’s so-called Make-America-Great-Again (or MAGA) movement are beginning to voice discontent, as this new issue comes on top of the tariffs Trump had ordered which had hit the consumer hard.
Iran has so far not retaliated against the USA, its initial response being to launch 27 missiles, spanning the Golan Heights, and Northern and Central Israel. The use Iran might make of the Strait of Hormuz, though that would take the conflict a notch higher, what with 20 percent of the world’s daily crude oil consumption, 18 million barrels, from the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. In the same way, the Houthis could interdict the Red Sea for shipping, which would force the USA to act, as it did previously. The whole situation is spiraling out of control. Instead of bringing violence to a swift end, the US intervention seems to have made matters worse.
