Take a guess: 'obliterated,' 'degraded' or 'delayed'
By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist
No matter what one thinks about Donald Trump joining the Israel-Iran war, no matter the outcome, it was impressive proof of American military technology, capability, planning, and — notwithstanding Tulsi Gabbard as dierctor of national intelligence — intelligence-gathering. As Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu said, it’s unlikely any other nation could have pulled it off. If nothing else, it triggered a Big, Beautiful Gloat (Heather Cox Richardson: tinyurl.com/hegloats2u).
Here, from The New York Times, with no paywall, is a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes background on the runup. Both “sides” will find items of interest: (NYT: tinyurl.com/paywallgone).
Impressive as it was, we must wonder: Had Trump’s dreamed-of, watch-this-Vlad-and-Kim military parade not been so humiliating, had it not made him look so embarrassingly weak, would he have rushed to enter the war? Given skin as thin as single-ply tissue and his need to appear superhero strong (Fox5NY: tinyurl.com/tradecards4u), who knows? For context, Trump once bleated, “Now that Obama’s numbers are in tailspin, watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.”
According to that NYT article, he was impressed with how Israel’s attack was “playing” on Fox “News.” Was that his metric? How am I playing? Slurping Kool-Aid like lemonade under a heat dome, Little Marco Rubio said it’s “irrelevant” whether we had intelligence indicating intent to make nukes (HuffPost: tinyurl.com/notrel4u). That’s alarming.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-take-a-guess-obliterated-degraded-or-delayed/