By Chris Walker
This article was originally published by Truthout
A majority of voters in the US say that Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran was a mistake.
News outlets are reporting that the United States and Israel are preparing for a possible restart of major combat operations in the Iran War, likely to commence after the U.S. midterm elections this coming November.
According to NPR, which cited a source briefed on the plans, Israel had indicated to the U.S. that it wanted to restart major operations in mid-October, just before its parliamentary elections were set to start. President Donald Trump reportedly dismissed that idea, opting to wait until next month.
The New York Times also reported that the administration and Israel want to restart operations soon after the midterms, citing multiple U.S. officials and “other people briefed on the deliberations” in its reporting.
According to that report, targets that the two countries could aim for in Iran include its missile and drone arsenals, but also civilian infrastructure such as power plants. The deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure or structures that don’t have specific military objectives is largely considered a war crime.
The restart of major operations within the ongoing conflict could be massive, with the goal reportedly being to push Iran to the brink of economic collapse, forcing them to make huge concessions in later negotiations, the Times reported. However, it’s unclear how successful such a campaign could be, as previous rounds of large-scale fighting failed to produce such an outcome.
“At this point in the war, what is clear is that the conventional military campaign waged to date, and the current punishing economic sanctions and American naval blockade, have not brought the regime back to the negotiating table in a meaningful way,” said Dana Stroul, a former Middle East policy official during the Biden administration, in remarks to the Times.
Stroul added that neither Trump nor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has made a compelling case for how more war would change this strategic dilemma.”
In recent interviews, Trump has indicated that future attacks could be genocidal in nature, telling Time magazine that it was “possible” that he would “annihilate” the country in the coming weeks.
Military exercises, apparently in preparation for an increase in hostilities, have already begun in Iraq. Israel also conducted a military jet “sortie” operation this week, in which dozens of its fighter jets flew dangerously close to Iran’s border. According to reporting from Axios, “some U.S. sources said they had the impression that Israel was hoping the Iranians would fire at the aircraft, providing a justification for launching strikes against Iran.”
The delay in restarting major operations could be a deliberate move by the Trump administration, as U.S. voters are fed up with the continuation of the war, which many see as yet another long-term unwanted military conflict that is affecting people’s lives at home through its negative impacts on the economy.
According to a recently published Associated Press/NORC poll, nearly 7 in 10 voters (68 percent) say that the next Congress should make ending the war one of its highest priorities. Another 24 percent said it should be a priority but not necessarily the highest one.
And an Economist/YouGov poll from earlier this month found that 56 percent of Americans view Trump’s decision to start a war against Iran as a mistake, with only 29 percent saying it was the right decision.
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