News of Iran’s retaliation hit fast and hard today, even if its missiles didn’t hit their intended targets. The hot takes are all over the place, but a theme of “de-escalation” seems to be taking hold. In other words, some say that Iran chose this route because they knew that their missiles would be intercepted. It’s a way to save face without amping up the danger.
In some ways, that should be a relief. However, there are a couple of problems with this logic. The first, as Anchor Watch host Bobby Jones makes clear, is that there are too many things that could go wrong with this Iranian strategy. Knocking a missile out of the sky is like shooting a bullet with another bullet mid-flight. It’s one thing if the Iranian missile makes it to its target and that target is some small, foreign outpost in the middle of a desert.
But they fired these weapons at the most important American military base in the region. If they didn’t want to actually hit it, it was a wild gamble. Had they somehow broken through — even accidentally — we’d be talking about dead Americans right now, and the escalation would be immediate and massive.
But compounding the problem (that we created) is Trump. He is ignorant. He doesn’t understand his adversary, and he doesn’t want to understand them. He seeks only optics, not results. And the optics he’s after are those of a tough, testosterone-soaked fool exploding things with his rockets. Anyone can see where this leads.
The biggest question for either side is whether or not there is an off-ramp. Bobby breaks this down in this short interview. For any rational POTUS, there are half a dozen off-ramps. But Trump isn’t a rational POTUS.
We may have dodged a bullet, but with Trump in power, there will more than likely be a next time.
Have questions for Bobby? Ask in the comments and we’ll run them on Anchor Watch at noon ET Tuesday.
