| ▲ | alephnerd 3 hours ago | |
First, your argument makes Iran a valid target because Iran has been directly supplying weaponry for Russia to use against Ukraine. If Iran is justified to strike Qatar for supporting the US via basing and financing, then the US is justified in striking Iran as they are supporting Russia against Ukraine with financing and armaments. Secondly, Iran had very few allies in the region, and Qatar was their last major one who could act as a good faith interlocutor. Now Iran has to negotiate with the US via Pakistan, whose leadership has been setting the US's Iran policy [0][1][2] in favor of an armed approach following the short Pakistan-Iran War in 2024 [3]. We can keep perpetually striking Iran. It doesn't matter to us and midterms be damned. But Iran has lost their last contact with whom they could negotiate an offramp, and will have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars and at least decade to rebuild. The maximalist approach (which was always stupid) won't occur, but the realistic win (ie. a deindustrialized Iran that cannot threaten a nuclear program for at least a decade) is successful. I even mentioned this would be the end result before this happened [4]. Qatar was the last major Gulf State that was pushing against this approach, but they have now silently aligned with Israel, Saudi, and the UAE. And as I've mentioned before, HNers heavily overestimate the influence and power civilian leadership such as a President let alone their cabinet members and other Senate confirmed members have on actual policymaking. In action (and even in this administration) policy is managed upwards. [0] - https://www.intelligenceonline.com/middle-east-and-africa/20... [1] - https://www.intelligenceonline.com/middle-east-and-africa/20... [2] - https://www.intelligenceonline.com/asia-pacific/2025/07/09/p... [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Iran%E2%80%93Pakistan_con... | ||