Trump says Israel would be ’leader’ of Iran strike if Tehran doesn’t give up nuclear weapons program

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1. In characteristic fashion, Donald Trump, ever the impresario of geopolitical spectacle, has announced that Israel would “lead” any potential strike on Iran should Tehran persist in its nuclear ambitions. This assertion, delivered with the declarative simplicity that often obscures complex strategic realities, continues Trump’s penchant for transactional diplomacy and improvisational statecraft.

   What is troubling is not merely the policy implication—that the United States would outsource a preemptive war—but the casual way in which such a pronouncement was made. Trump’s framing reduces foreign policy to a theater of binary choices: capitulate or face obliteration. It is a form of diplomatic brinkmanship more befitting a real estate negotiation than the careful deliberations of statesmen.

   Moreover, his declaration raises serious questions about constitutional responsibility. War, especially one with such combustible consequences, is not to be subcontracted. The Founders, wary of executive overreach, placed the war-making power squarely with Congress. To cheer from the sidelines as an ally undertakes what would be, in effect, an American-sanctioned act of war is to evade that responsibility.

   Israel, of course, has its own sovereign interests, and its concerns about Iran’s nuclear trajectory are not without merit. But for the United States to treat those concerns as a proxy for its own decisions is to mistake alliance for abdication.

2. Hopefully Iran already secretly has nukes. Russia should give them some, so they can defend themselves from the genocidal maniacs of the western countries. Iran with nukes would be a strong counterbalance to Israel; Israel is a small country, and unless it has submarines armed with nukes, it has no second-strike capability. Therefore Iran could wipe it out if Iran felt threatened enough, and it looked like Israel was going to hit Iran hard. Iran needs a deterrent, and hopefully it has that, as Russia would be making a serious mistake if it wasn’t to stand up for its ally.

3. Why would I, as an American, want America involved in a war against Iran?

4. They say the target is the nuclear facilities. But Israel doesn’t have the ability to carry bunker busters bombs of this magnitude.

   This likely means that US will use their stealth bombers, and Israel will do the rest (clear up air defense, neutralize retaliatory capability.

5. Pretty certain that a strike on Iran will start a Nuke arms race as well. I would expect Germany, Turkey, Poland, Japan and perhaps even the Scandinavian countries to get some next.

6. I would trust Israel to fight Iran before I would trust Germany to fight Russia.

7. This is outrageous. We should be making Israel and Iran disarm nukes together, and make peace. Iran is not a threat to the U.S. other than retaliation for what we and Israel do to them.

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