Yes, unprovoked. Did Iran launch a bunch of airstrikes against Israel or the US recently that I missed?
This is a might makes right war. Israel was relatively strong, Iran relatively weak, and Netanyahu took the chance. These are clear violations of the UN charter, as there was no self defense against an ongoing or imminent attack.
The cynical, realpolitik view is that might has always made right, and Israel assuredly sees this as self defense. But if Iran was stronger than Israel and decided to launch an unprovoked regime change attack on Israel, because it knew Israel wanted to destroy their government, would that be just or moral? Obviously they would have been correct to have that concern!
Syria is relatively stable now. But if you want to use that analogy, you should start in 2011. The Syrian Civil War resulted in ~650k deaths, half of which were civilians, and ~6.6 million refugees. Syria had a population of ~23 million in 2011. Iran has about 4 times as many people, ~92 million.
I just think it's a very dangerous game to be playing. It may be a net positive for Israel, but is it good for the US to get involved in a regime change war in Iran? Does Israel or the US have a plan beyond bombing Iran and hoping it all turns out ok? The bombing campaigns that opened the second war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan went great too. We were still there for 8 years in Iraq, 20 years in Afghanistan, and focusing only on US casualties, had ~7500 deaths and 50+k wounded. I really hope this time is different, but I'm not sure why I should expect that it will be.
This is a might makes right war. Israel was relatively strong, Iran relatively weak, and Netanyahu took the chance. These are clear violations of the UN charter, as there was no self defense against an ongoing or imminent attack.
The cynical, realpolitik view is that might has always made right, and Israel assuredly sees this as self defense. But if Iran was stronger than Israel and decided to launch an unprovoked regime change attack on Israel, because it knew Israel wanted to destroy their government, would that be just or moral? Obviously they would have been correct to have that concern!
Syria is relatively stable now. But if you want to use that analogy, you should start in 2011. The Syrian Civil War resulted in ~650k deaths, half of which were civilians, and ~6.6 million refugees. Syria had a population of ~23 million in 2011. Iran has about 4 times as many people, ~92 million.
I just think it's a very dangerous game to be playing. It may be a net positive for Israel, but is it good for the US to get involved in a regime change war in Iran? Does Israel or the US have a plan beyond bombing Iran and hoping it all turns out ok? The bombing campaigns that opened the second war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan went great too. We were still there for 8 years in Iraq, 20 years in Afghanistan, and focusing only on US casualties, had ~7500 deaths and 50+k wounded. I really hope this time is different, but I'm not sure why I should expect that it will be.