Tucker on the Israel-Iran situation

Given that Trump critic Thomas Massie has been banished from MAGA, I suppose the same may be true for Tucker. Both opposed U.S. involvement in the war, and Tucker has interviewed Massie on the Israel Lobby. Trump, as usual is taking a victory lap because of the truce, but it is quite fragile—Israel responded to what the IDF claims was two Iranian missiles (denied by Iran) with a huge bombing attack. Trump reacted mainly to Israel, noting that the supposed Iranian missile(s) didn’t do any damage. But it looks like both sides want the truce to hold. If so, it would indeed be a victory for Trump. This is from Tucker’s email list today.

This Is True No Matter What Happens Next

As of this newsletter’s release, the world is frustratingly short on clarity on the conflict in the Middle East. In the past 24 hours alone, the U.S. and Iran have appeared on the brink of an all-out war, Israel and Iran seemed to reach a ceasefire, that truce went up in flames, and now, it may be back on.

We won’t try to predict what happens next, but one thing is undeniably clear: America’s leaders put U.S. lives on the line throughout this saga.

Everyone seeking peace let out a collective sigh of relief when Iran’s counterattack yielded no casualties. That development suggests the Islamic Republic does not want a war and is seeking to deescalate. Thank God.

But what if that wasn’t the case? What if cooler heads hadn’t prevailed, and the Iranians launched an actual assault on America’s military bases? As we noted yesterday, the U.S. has over 40,000 troops and Defense Department civilians stationed in the Middle East. Nearly 14,000 in Kuwait, 2,500 in neighboring Iraq, and thousands more in Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Every one of them could have been a sitting duck if Iran had chosen a different path, and Washington’s decision-making walked our country into the undesirable position of having the ball completely in the Ayatollah’s court.

Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mark Levin, and all the other neocons who took that risk are fortunate there’s no blood on their hands. We hope they don’t repeat the same gamble any time soon.