I thought it would be fun to put out my opinion on the whole Iran situation right now, because to be honest, there just aren't that many people expressing their opinions about Israel-related geopolitics.
/s
But for real, not only am I generally ignorant about the whole affair, but I'm particularly ignorant about it. This leads to a unique advantage when considering my opinions. I'm so ignorant because I just don't care about the Middle East. It's a land of forever wars spanning a thousand years. You can point to conflict as a result of almost everything: climate, USA interference, Russian interference, Israel, Sunni Vs Shia, Control over natural resources such as the Nile's water, dam building, communism, and lord knows what else. Take any 5 issues away by magic and they'll just redouble their efforts of conflict based around the other infinite issues.
So I just don't care. It would be nice if I could channel my empathy in that direction, but humans are limited in their scope by family, friends, proximity. Anybody who genuinely feels passionate about, say, Gaza, are likely doing it as a virtue signal to themselves and circles to let people know they are good people on the right side of history.
When interviewed, street protestors reveal to the world that they in large part are literally clueless as to what they're even protesting about. Don't forget, there are far worse humanitarian crises and genocides going on around the world right now that most people reading this are absolutely clueless about. Because they literally don't care. Those have less weight when it comes to signalling virtue because the rest of the world isn't paying attention either.
So yeah, I am not taking political sides on this. I don't care if Trump is wrong and evil to do whatever he's done, or Netanyahu playing to stay in power or take land, or Palestinians all being terrorists. I'm sure these things are all true.
But.
Should Iran's nuclear situation be killed off once and for all? Yes.
If this requires the Bunker Busting Bombs Trump has just plonked on them, so be it.
If this creates a greater conflict dragging the US, the UK and such into it needlessly, so be it.
If the government of Iran is overthrown and replaced by something much worse, so be it.
I know that sounds callous, but there's a much, much bigger picture here in a scenario where their nuclear program is not stopped.
Now, I'm not fully convinced Iran's intention is to enrich, arm, and launch nukes at Israel. It's entirely possible given their decades of rhetoric and their Octopus of proxy powers surrounding Israel, paid in billions by Iran to try and destroy it for decades.
But It's also entirely reasonable to say they simply want a deterrent. Even just having enriched-but-not-ready Uranium could be seen as a deterrent. If other countries have it, why not Iran?
The answer is remarkably simple: Iran is a terrible, unstable place in a twisted region of conflict, and nuclear proliferation has been high priority for decades.
Iran lies. They say they need this enrichment for pharmaceuticals and energy. Even a quick check shows that 60% enrichment is far beyond what's needed for any of those things. Here are the facts:
- 60% can only be used for a path towards nuclear armament
- 90% is what's needed, and the time to get from 60-90 is weeks.
- It may take months or years to build the warheads, but for all we know they started that long ago
- They ramped up their enrichment recently after USA pulled out of the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal.
- They have not been transparent about many of these issues
When it comes to a greater regional context, things get worse.
The powers that be in Saudi Arabia particularly - Perhaps the primary rival of Iran - but also Turkey, Egypt, and the UAE, have all implied at one point or another that should Iran achieve their goals, nuclear proliferation among the Middle East will be inevitable.
The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the same far more directly in 2018:
Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible
The very fact that Iran is even toying with the idea of Nuclearisation is a very short fuse near a very large flame. Pakistan or China involving themselves helping other nations with this technology will further the West/East divide, and, regarding Israel, a country surrounded by the 8 tentacles of the Iranian Octopus bent on destroying them, will at some point feel so pressured that their own (unconfirmed) nuclear stockpile will start coming to the surface. Should they ever be seen for real, who knows the consequences.
So the USA is right to Bomb Iran?
To me... I think so. It's unfortunate that the USA has to be involved at all in such a faraway land, and if the Middle East could just sort out their own shit then that would be much more ideal. But it does seem to be true that the USA is the only country on earth capable of not only having such massive Bunker Buster Bombs, but the ability to actually deliver their gargantuan payloads to accurately get them to pierce through mountains and concrete to the underground facilities.
Even if a later investigation shows that somehow the international committees with all their science and investigations, who previously had a total consensus that there is highly enriched Uranium (HEU), were all drunk and completely incorrect and it was actually highly enriched Tungsten or something, it still clears the air on a stage which is very much global and potentially absolutely apocalyptic.
Nipping it in the bud, despite the regional consequences, is probably best for humanity. We have enough to worry about already with North Korea's nukes, the South China Sea & Taiwan, Ukraine vs Russia, General Islamic extremism, India vs Pakistan, Israel vs Palestine, and god knows what else that might pop up at any minute and escalate global tensions.
I am hopeful that Trump, still being fairly anti-war for the most part, will end it there. A quick boom here and there are military facilities, and goodbye.
Israel should probably follow suit although I suspect Netanyahu wants to topple the government for good measure. This... I'm hit and miss about.
Most mainstream media has failed to show people that a LARGE part of the Iranian people support the toppling of the government. There have been numerous large protests around the world of Iranians communicating this wish.
But experience in Iraq, Afghanistan and, well, basically every time this has happened, shows us it just doesn't go the way things are planned. 92 million people is a lot of people to take care of when a government is toppled, and about 80% of the men are probably going to get on their hiking boots and start walking right into Europe. Great! More conflict.
All in all, it's ugly. It's all very ugly, and there is no single option available that can be described as 'peaceful and wholesome'. There is no possibility that things won't get worse in one way or another, tensions grow and future crises compound upon themselves for years to come.
But that is still better than the entire Middle East and North Africa starting a new Nuclear Arms Race and all the consequences you can imagine from that.