War, what is it good for?

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

Intentions aside, UK policy has pretty much nothing to do with this conflict

[Jamiet99uk]

Intentions aside, UK policy has pretty much nothing to do with this conflict

It hasn't stopped it, and it has emboldened Netanyahu who has been told he can do whatever he wants with no consequences.

[Jamiet99uk]

If you woke up this morning to find you were the Prime Minister of the UK, or the President of the USA, what would you do about Israel's current actions?

[Octavious]

If you woke up this morning to find you were the Prime Minister of the UK, or the President of the USA, what would you do about Israel's current actions?

The current actions specifically referring to the strikes on Iran? Pretty much what Starmer is doing. As much as possible stay out of it, but make sure increased forces are at hand to react to any threats against British interests.

I'm genuinely curious about what you'd do differently. Cry "Rule Britainnia!" and send out the gunboats to beat a bit of civilisation into Johnny Foreigner?

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

The big prize for both Israel and the US here is the elimination of Iran as a nuclear power and a threat to their dominance in the region.

The Israeli military will talk about taking out commanders and strategic targets but clearly their real aim is provocation. They wanted to provoke Iran into responding and they hope nobody will remember or care that Israel started this.

The objective for Israel, with the US standing by their side, no matter what Trump might say, is to draw the region, and western powers, into a wider war.

This has been made possible because over the last 20 months, governments of the world have been tested, and have stood by and done NOTHING while a genocide happened in Gaza. They’ve dutifully provided political cover, continued to supply weapons and ammo, and they’ve cracked down on opposition to the mass slaughter.

Keir Starmer lies about calling for ‘calm’ while mobilising British warplanes to defend Israel. He is one of the authors of this situation, and when push comes to shove, he and Trump will drag us all in to a wider war too. That’s what all the militarism, “defence” spending, “war footing” etc has all been about.

Everyone who has played a part in cheering that on is responsible too, putting our very existence and future generations in jeopardy.

Is your view that a war with Iran is totally unnecessary? That their nuclear ambitions could have been otherwise deterred, indefinitely, without conflict?

Maybe a forceful rebuke of Israel (including, say, an end to US military support) in response to Gaza would have discouraged Israel from its attacks on Iran. But that logic feels backwards to me—the West continued to support Israel despite its obvious lurch towards genocide *because* of the threat of Iran and its nuclear program.

Now that this conflict has started, what benefit would it be to the UK, US, etc. for Israel to lose? The harsh reality is that the genocide in Gaza doesn't change the strategic calculus vis-a-vis Iran. The US and other Western powers may indeed resent Israel's belligerence if Iran is not actually close to a bomb, or if the conflict goes south quickly, but otherwise this is basically going according to plan—Israel does the heavy lifting in a war to prevent Iran from getting the bomb, while the rest of the Western coalition waits for opportunities to obliterate the Iranian nuclear program (and maybe its leadership) without having to dedicate much in terms of boots on the ground.