Originally Posted by
dead_pan
The US doesn't need any pretext to restart combat operations- it's operating in a different reality. Iran's stated retaliation if they do seems to be giving the pause for thought
Your phrase "different reality" echoes a past administration that over two decades ago decided that
objective reality no longer constrained them:
'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'
I can't help feeling that "operating in a different reality", this belief that once you're powerful enough, reality is no impediment to ambition, was what lead directly to the present mess, and that no amount of
wishful thinking will be enough to extract them from the predictable mess that has resulted.
The Iranian regime has been shown that they must have nuclear weapons for their long term survival, and have themselves demonstrated that in the shorter term, control of Hormuz is a potent alternative weapon. The obvious outcome if Iran is clobbered hard enough is the destruction of oil and freshwater infrastructure on the opposite side of the Gulf, crippling the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and severely damaging Saudi Arabia.
Nobody* is going to win this war, by extension, America and Israel are amongst the losers.
(* Actually, anyone making solar panels or electric vehicles or producing oil elsewhere is already winning.)