Originally Posted by
FangsF15
This is a fair point.
Assessments can and do change. Not sure if that fully explains the ‘now’, or if the Iranians greatly accelerated their efforts, or both.
It seems like the “now” was that Israel was determined to seize the opportunity to strike the supreme leader. They gave courtesy notice to the US.
Iran was determined to drag the US into the Israel fight because they lost the Syria/Hezbollah threats to check Israel.
Trump’s options were shoot down Israel planes, withdraw iron dome support for civilians, or hunker down while Iran responded to the Israel strike.
Trump decided to own the whole thing instead of just responding to Iranian aggression provoked by Israel.
Sounds like midnight hammer set them far enough back for Trump to be happy but not for Bibi to be happy, which is why Trump has an obvious pivot.