Originally Posted by Lowslung

Most likely explanation is that Israel knows it has a limited window to act vis a vis the Trump admin. They’ve likely calculated that chances are good the midterms in the U.S. will seriously constrain the administration’s ability to act & they want to accomplish as much kinetic effect as possible until that point.

With the current administration, Israel has been given far fewer red lights and is predictably doing what it feels is in its best interests. SOME of those interests align with ours, but certainly not all & even Trump appears to be frustrated with the extent of Israeli strikes so far in this war. Personally, I believe it was beyond foolish to cut the head off the snake & expect anything but equally venomous fangs to grow back.

We are paying a very heavy price in lives lost, lives forever changed, military capability being attritted (we lost seven tankers in a week, expending a metric f@%k ton of very expensive ordinance, and apparently F-35s are being shot up by Iranian air defenses that we were assured were zapped in the first days of the war). For what? When is it over? Hint: Middle East forever war hasn’t been over since 1990, & it won’t be over whenever we finally call this one “mission accomplished” which could be next week or ten years down the road.

In the meantime, the guys and gals that replaced me in mil cockpits will continue to waste half their lives in conex quarters that were built to last months, but will house troops for decades, we will continue to use up valuable equipment and countless taxpayer dollars (all while screaming about the national debt mind you), and China and other potential adversaries will continue to capitalize on our folly while building up military force and soft power in places we SAY are strategically important to us. This isn’t that hard folks. We’ve all seen this movie multiple times.