Tom Moran: Why didn’t Obama or Bush pull this trigger?

For over ten years, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has been urging his American counterparts to launch an attack on Iran, constantly stating that the Islamists are just a hair away from developing a bomb. He eventually located a president who concurred.

This was not one of the ridiculous things that President Donald Trump has done, such as threatening to invade Canada. Knowing that their nation would be safe from attack, mullahs would be even more aggressive throughout the Middle East if Iran were to develop nuclear weapons, which might lead to a worldwide Armageddon. Trump is backed by Leon Panetta, the former head of CIA under President Barack Obama, who claims he had no other option. Additionally, the timing was favorable after Israel decimated Iran’s air defenses and its proxy army.

Even if the attack was amazing, there are a hundred ways it may go wrong. Additionally, Trump’s national security team is a group of sycophants who are severely lacking in real-world expertise but passed the loyalty test. Being a passenger in a clown car during a crisis like this makes me, personally, feel unsafe.

Let’s examine the dangers and consider whether it would have made more sense to allow Iran to give up its nuclear program at the negotiating table for a few more weeks, as Trump had proposed only days prior to the strike.

THE POSSIBLE BACKFIRE OF THIS

The first risk: Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told The New York Times that Iran had moved more than 800 pounds of enriched uranium from the nuclear complex at Isfahan a week before the Israeli airstrikes started. His team saw the material packed into casks, which is enough to make nine or ten bombs.

Grossi also stated in a Sunday CNN interview that Iran has not concealed the fact that they have safeguarded this information.

Iran may be able to further enrich the uranium to weapons-grade levels, according to two Israeli intelligence officials who told the Times that they have proof Iran also concealed certain equipment.

Rep. Jim Himes, the leading Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, stated on Sunday that this was hinted at several days beforehand.It’s hardly impossible that the Iranians, who are not stupid, might have loaded this things onto a truck and driven off. If so, we just sealed off a number of tunnels in a mountain. All things considered, the president has taken a huge risk here.

Karim Sadjadpour, a Carnegie Endowment for Peace expert on Iran, cautions that the strikes might even backfire by inciting Iran to accelerate the development of at least a few nuclear weapons.

Will we look back and declare that this insured or averted a bomb? He queries.

DO THE GOALS OF ISRAEL AND AMERICA LINE UP?

Another danger is that we have no say in when this ends. Israel and Iran have a voice. We were reminded of the time Iran launched missiles at the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Monday afternoon. (However, the U.S. claimed no casualties, and Iran offered a prior warning.)

Trump has threatened to escalate the conflict and strike Iran far more severely if it assaults American forces stationed in the area or attempts to cause a worldwide economic downturn by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Then what?

What if Israel’s war objectives differ from ours? What would happen if Netanyahu sent ground troops to locate the buried bomb material or chose to seek regime change? What if, like in Gaza, he broadens the bombing campaign to include schools, hospitals, and apartments? What part will America play in that conflict?

POWERS OF WAR IN THE HOME

Additionally, there is a domestic risk, as Robert Kagan noted in the Atlantic article titled “American Democracy Might Not Survive a War with Iran.”

Our president has defied judges, imprisoned lawful immigrants for voicing political views, sent Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles despite the mayor and governor’s protests, neutered Congress by seizing control of the national budget, and done everything in his power to obstruct a peaceful transition of power.

President Woodrow Wilson imprisoned approximately 1,000 people for more than a year during World War I for their speech, primarily in opposition to his decision to enlist. He closed 75 publications and newspapers, and his Justice Department organized a 250,000-member vigilante force that beat and imprisoned draft evaders and forcibly dispersed protesters.

Kagan says, “Can you imagine what Trump would do with a state of war?”

For instance, what if Trump responded to anti-war demonstrations by using the Insurrection Act of 1807, which gives him the authority to use the military to maintain law and order in the event of an insurgency, domestic abuse, unlawful combination, or conspiracy?

WHY I AM CONCERNED

Lastly, take a look at Trump’s staff. In a Signal chat group with a reporter, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is notorious for gushing about his plan to bomb the Houthis after drinking too much. Because of her lack of expertise and her admiration for Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, narrowly avoided confirmation in the Senate.

Despite his qualifications, does Secretary of State Marco Rubio have the guts to confront Trump during a strategy meeting? He used to call Trump a con artist, but he swallowed all of that to obtain this job, and now he’s just a bobblehead.

We should all be praying for a successful outcome. However, I’m concerned.

We now know that Trump’s assertion that Iran’s nuclear program was fully destroyed was untrue. It seemed destined to go down in history next to the Mission Accomplished banner of President George W. Bush.

And that’s not encouraging.

Moran was the editorial page editor and columnist for The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey, before joining Advance Local as a national political columnist. His email address is aquinas1222@gmail.com.