US/Israel conduct airstrikes on Iran again

Well there is some truth in that I suppose :D

Many analysts are warning that Israel is rapidly becoming a liability to the US, even in the Middle East. For decades, the belief was that it was a huge asset and ally in the region, but the wheels are quickly coming off. If it can't do anything to limit Iran after two surprise attacks and wars in the space of nine months, what purpose does it serve in the region?

It doesn't matter why they have they have the presense, you can't say they are a neutral country because of it which posters here persist on doing. No more so than people trying to claim that Ireland is neutral when we literally let American military planes stop here, which have included people "renditioned".

Maybe stop thinking in simplistic, binary, American thought processes. A lot of the time there are just 'bad guys' all around. The innocent people just suffer as a result.

Iraq looks like it is sliding into chaos again. This is spiraling out of control on a regional basis. Syria could easily be next as is hardly stable

I tend not to believe anything until I find it believable.

Surely you can debate the actual topic and not dismiss it as "simplistic, binary, American thought processes".

Do we want a discussion or an echo chamber? I've made it quite clear in my postings throughout the thread that it's perfectly fine to think there's no binary element to the conflict, it's just a serious of bad actors….or zeroes.

But even at that there is always nuance in a broader sense, in some cases it's far more valid to say Israel is the party at major fault, and then in others that's true of Iran.

Israel certainly has a lot to answer for with regards Palestine. Iran has a lot to answer for with regards it's endless meddling in the goal of destablising Israel towards the unattainable goal of destroying Israel.

Both things can be true at once.

But that doesn't get away from the often displayed inconsistency with regards Iranian attacks on its neighbors and perception of the logic or validity behind said attacks, and then the logic and validity behind Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

I'm not American, Israeli, or Iranian. I look at the conflict pretty factually though I can say I believe Iran is entirely lying in a bed of its own making, and it's contextually very different to what's happening in Palestine.

I agree with these points completely but it still doesn't get to the bones of why so many people think it's understandable or justfied for Iran to be striking all of its neighbors (even if it's an obvious strategic pursuit of survival as you say) but the same is not given to Israel striking Lebanon, where rockets are being fired by the occupying force.

There are a lot of people on this thread saying Iran hitting all around it are valid pursuits given their accommodation of the US to various degrees, ranging from barely anything to US military bases and direct attacks launched from same.

If we accept that - and I've no problem accepting that as an opinion - how do many of the same people simultaneously point to strikes on Lebanon as unjustified, unacceptable, even though the context is not so different to attacks being launched from the territory of US bases.

Absolute nonsense.

How many people do you think have wanted to hit the US with a big terror attack since 9/11?

How many have succeeded?

This is not going to change.

Even if Iran has sleeper cells somewhere you can be sure Israel knows all about them and will intervene first.

Maybe they are eating their pets and cats and dogs too. How he hasn't been overturned and tossed out of government I will never know.

But blowing the guts out of Lebanese cities as is happening tonight and clearing its southern countryside of people will do nothing to achieve peace and co existence -

it will just kill an unimaginable number of innocent people and create another generation of terrorists -

Israel just cannot learn and the US is incapable of joined up thinking -
between them they have made a bad situation many times worse for many more countries.

God, the news tonight is so depressing with Iran coming out and saying to get ready for a long war and rising oil prices.

F*cking hell.....

Then Trump saying he's not ready in Iran yet. Can someone make him stop and making it worse?

You make some very excellent points.

Furthermore, Iran's recent war crimes in attacking non-belligerents have the capacity to transform the American and Israel actions into fully justifiable ones. The threats and action on the Straits are nothing more than an attack on civilian transport.

You make a very strong point about the reaction to Iran's attacks on its neighbours vis-a-vis Israel's actions in Lebanon, but Ireland has been extremely hypocritical on the Middle East for a long time now.