I have no idea why you would assume Israel had to resort to extortion to get Trump to help them bomb Iran. We bombed Venezuela a few weeks ago, no extortion required.

It's far more likely he was did it because Hegseth thought it would be more manly or something more ego driven than extortion. More likely it's just another example of flooding the zone to forget about the Epstein files and the stagnating economy

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dmos62 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> flooding the zone

I've often struggled to find a concise way to say "control public narrative by crowding out other headlines". Thank you for sharing the popular term for this [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_the_zone

	▲	koshergweilo 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No problem! It's one of things that when you see it, you start to see it everywhere. The concept also has broad explanatory power: it explains seemingly irrational actions from otherwise shrewd actors such as Elon Musk spending so much on Twitter and a lot of Trump's smaller controversies

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potatototoo99 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Venezuela is in the eastern hemisphere, just like Cuba, and it seems they want to control that entire part of the world. Iran would be of no concern to the US if not for Israel.

	▲	koshergweilo 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Iran would be of no concern to the US if not for Israel. This is only true if you completely ignore the Sunni Shia split and our relationship with literally every other country in the Middle East excluding Israel. Edit: This is evidenced by the fact that when Iran was attacked by The US and Israel, they bombed a bunch of neighboring countries with US bases. None of those countries have alliances with Israel. (Although they are certainly less hostile than other countries in the region)

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4gotunameagain 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I am thinking the theories are true because of the must larger negative repercussions of that action.

They are strengthening the regime (US intelligence services were aware of that before the attack and had informed the president), they are destabilizing all their oil producers, they are risking great economic cost..

It only makes sense if indeed they either extorted him, or if he is indeed demented / deranged.

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names_are_hard 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Or he's just a manchild who likes doing things that he thinks will make him look strong.

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autoexec 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Picking on someone vastly weaker than you (especially while they're already getting beat up by somebody else) doesn't make you look strong, it mostly just makes you look like an asshole, and probably an asshole who is too scared or too weak to go after somebody who can actually fight back.

	▲	koshergweilo 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> it mostly just makes you look like an asshole This is true, but only for a certain percentage of the US population. Large swaths of this country think that picking on our weaker neighbors evidence of our strength

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koshergweilo 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You make it sound as if Trump is some kind of rational actor who would never willingly put his hand on the stove.

Indeed every negative repercussion you have mentioned has already been previously inflicted on us without any extortion required.

> They are strengthening the regime

Us action in Venezuela has only strengthened the PSUV's grip on the country.

> they are destabilizing all their oil producers, they are risking great economic cost.

Liberation day. Need I say more?

This administration is quite willing to risk stability and the economy to assuage Trump's ego.

I mean he campaigned on stuff like "the so-called enemy doesn’t respect our country any longer." Blaming "Kamala Harris’ weakness" for this loss of respect. What else shows strength like literally blowing up your adversary?