The US-Israeli attack on Iran has been an unmitigated humanitarian, political, and economic disaster. And it could be about to get a lot worse.
Following his bombing campaign’s failure to achieve regime change in Tehran or reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical energy chokepoint that Iran has effectively closed, US President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of additional American troops to the Middle East.
These include 6,000 sailors and military personnel on board a carrier strike group led by the USS George HW Bush; more than 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division; and an amphibious assault unit spearheaded by the USS Tripoli, comprising an estimated 2,200 Marines. They join the 50,000 or so US troops that were already in the region at the start of the war.
Will Trump actually deploy them?
The evidence strongly suggests that he will.
Similarly massive buildups of military power preceded the US attack on Venezuela in January and the US-Israeli initial assault on…
