“Peace Through Strength” Performed by Israel and the US

On June 13, Israel launched its operation “Rising Lion” against Iran, targeting its nuclear infrastructure and ballistic missile facilities, but then shifted its focus to oil infrastructure. Both sides actively exchange blows and, of course, there are casualties among the civilian population.

On June 16, Reuters reported that Iran had asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to convey a request to Mr. Trump to influence Israel to cease fire in exchange for Iranian concessions on the “nuclear deal.”

The request apparently reached Mr. Trump, who issued an “ultimate ultimatum” to Iranian leaders on June 18, demanding to dismantle their nuclear program, but then he changed his mind and took a 2-week break to make a decision. And rightly so, otherwise he could again put himself in TACO (“Trump Always Chickens Out”) position if Iran did not comply.

And Iran appeared to have begun to comply. On June 20, Iran's Foreign Minister, after meeting with European counterparts in Geneva, said that his country was willing to consider negotiations, provided there was a ceasefire from Israel. But...

On June 22, Mr. Trump changed his mind again and gave the order to bomb Iran's three main uranium processing plants without authorization from the US Congress, and then proudly announced his actions to the world in his “Truth Social”:
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! ”

I always find it strange when someone big and powerful starts military actions on foreign soil because of their insatiable desire for peace. It’s true, “if you want peace, prepare for war.” Nothing good will come of that, but what to do? Mr. Trump is the legitimately elected president of the US, and humanity is moving towards disintegration.

A brief history of the US-Iranian relations.

The US negotiated with Iran for a long time the stopping of their uranium enrichment program. Then they seemed to have reached an agreement (under the Obama administration), and signed “Iran nuclear deal” together with the Europeans in 2015. Iran seemed to have suspended its nuclear program, but then the hot-blooded D. Trump became the US president. He cancelled in 2018 everything that was done before him unilaterally, and imposed more sanctions on Iran. Iran was offended, relations between the countries worsened significantly in 2019-20 and Iran increased its uranium enrichment.

After being re-elected and exchanging more threats with Iran in April 2025, Mr. Trump in his inimitable “consistent” style decided to start negotiations with Iran again to stop their nuclear program, but then Israel intervened with its attack on June 13. Mr. Trump threatened to strike the hideout of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei with a super bomb. The US president literally has said: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding… He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out, at least not for now.”

This is a clear interference in the internal affairs of another country with the aim of regime change! And this was said by the president of democratic America! Why then do the US complain about interference in their affairs by Russia, China, etc.?
America has changed a lot in the last 10 years... I think that many people in the world (and probably in the US, too) would also very much like to change the regime of Mr. Trump, and now he himself is setting the example ...

"You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone."

These words are attributed to Al Capone.

The US has always been more or less supportive of Israel in its policies, and besides, Mr. Trump vowed to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons since his 2016 election campaign.

It must also be said that Iran has created many enemies for itself with its actions recent times, and even the usually very tolerant Europeans have spoken out clearly on this issue recently at the G7 meeting in Canada. The G7 leaders called Iran “the main source of regional instability and terrorism,” affirmed that “Israel has the right to defend itself,” declared their “support for Israel’s security,” and vowed that “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

It turns out that Prime Minister of Israel B. Netanyahu presented everyone with a fait accompli by his attack on June 13, and skillfully pushed hot-tempered Mr. Trump to take action against the long-time enemy. A brilliant combination. Now, Israel's righteous or unrighteous actions in Iran are backed and justified by the actions of the US, but the Americans might not have interfered.

Israel's actions also put Iran's allies in the "axis of evil" - Russia and China - in an awkward position. The Russians immediately condemned an “unprovoked aggression” of Israel and cynically called it a «dangerous escalation that violated the United Nations Charter and international law,” not noticing their own military actions in Ukraine for 3.5 years, but showed no desire to practically help their ally.
China also condemned Israel after its assault, and after it “strongly condemned” the bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities by America, but just like Russia had shown no signs of providing weapons and other support to Iran.
By the way, the Chinese non-interference in the affairs of other countries distinguishes now China from Russia and the US very favorably. The Chinese consider Taiwan is “theirs” and, I think, will take it without military actions easily sooner or later.

Thus, Western public expressed its opinion via G7, condemning Iran (despite the fact that Israel launched the massive attack on June 13), and the US President could either start military action on Israel's side or not. That's what he said on June, 18: “I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” i.e. Mr. Trump doesn't guarantee he'll control himself. Probably, because of the age.

It was clear that the opportunity to make a big splash on the international stage was very tempting for Mr. Trump, and finally he surrendered. He risks nothing by siding with a victorious Israel. He can show his “toughness” to the world and Mr. Putin, in particular. He can take credit for the victory over Iran (Israel has already done most of the dirty work) and present himself as a brilliant “peacemaker through strength.” And he can rehabilitate himself internationally because all his attempts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, bring peace to Gaza and the trade war with China have failed.

I wonder if Mr. Trump can claim the coveted Nobel Peace Prize after bombing Iran.

Most importantly, around two-thirds of Americans (and even Republicans) do not want the US to engage in military action against Iran.

The Washington Post recently conducted an interesting survey among 1,000 Americans whether they support US strikes on Iran. The poll has found that the Americans basically opposed the US airstrikes against Iran - 45 percent to 25 percent, with a sizable 30 percent saying they are unsure.

Here are some details:
- two-thirds of Democrats oppose airstrikes against Iran, but Republicans are not as united, with 47 percent supporting strikes while 24 percent oppose them and 29 percent have no opinion.

- among Trump voters, 46 percent support airstrikes while 26 percent are opposed and 28 percent are unsure.

- the Americans in military or veteran households are split on whether to launch strikes against Iran by 39 to 37 percent (the rest 24 percent are unsure), while other households oppose it by 46 to 23 percent (the rest 31 percent were unsure).

So, basically, the poll shows that the Americans are divided into 3 almost equal parts which means that the issue with Iran is unclear to the nation, so nothing should be done now. Unfortunately, this did not influence Mr. Trump's decision. This is bad for him and for America.

My opinion on the role of the US in the current Iran-Israel conflict.

I believe that the right decision would be to truly “put America first,” i.e. not to enter into a war. And not because now it is a convenient moment when everyone (even the Europeans) are against Iran, “Israel is winning,” and it is necessary to “liberate” the unfortunate Iranians, groaning under the oppression of their ayatollahs...
It was necessary not to get involved in this war because the Americans did not decide for themselves that they need it. If the US is divided into approximately 3 parts in its attitude, and only one third is in favor of the war, it means that the country is mostly against the war (including the military). This is now the truth for the US, which Mr. Trump does not want to notice. And in case of failure, the remaining 2/3 will blame him for this.

It is impossible to make someone "happy" by force. The people must change their government, but if they do not have enough strength or common sense, it is useless to interfere, because then the troops should be kept in that country to support the new "friendly" government. The US has already waged wars on foreign soil many times, supported "friendly regimes" in other countries, and nothing good came of it. For me, the most memorable of all was the Taliban's lightning-fast return to power in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal from the country. The US spent a lot of money and human lives on military actions in the Middle East, ruined its reputation, and yet it remained unclear what America was doing there for many years.

You need to feel the situation in your country and be able to wait for the right time. Everything in life has its right timing. Now it is the wrong time to strike Iran because the people of the US are not clear about that, and Mr. Trump himself is apparently under the influence of his emotions and ego. So, there was no need to do anything, but Mr. Trump, as a person who wants to go down in history, snapped at the chance. Any leader in such situation is always tempted to do something decisive, to lead the people, while he should listen to them and simply carry out their will. Mr. Trump hasn’t listened to his citizens and made, in my opinion, a fatal mistake. Nothing good will come of all this. It is much easier to go down in history with a minus sign than a plus sign.

Solving obviously unsolvable international problems is much more convenient than putting things in order at home.

I have always been afraid that Mr. Trump due to his unbridled ambitions, emotional nature and inadequate vision of reality, could drag the US into some endless and unnecessary military adventure like the war of G. Bush Jr. in Iraq was, which Mr. Trump himself called “a big, fat mistake” sometime ago. Unfortunately, now he is doing the same.
Apparently, Mr. Trump considers victory over Iran as almost a fait accompli. In this regard, I would like to remind to all Americans that Mr. Putin was quite serious about seizing Ukraine in 3 days 3.5 years ago.

America is now divided into parts, it's weak economically (even though Americans do not see that) and participation in any (even small "victorious") war can have a catastrophic effect on the viability of the country. Any war is a big expense, and the US already has a huge debt of 37 trillion. The interest on this debt, which must be paid off within the next year, is $9.3 trillion. I described the consequences of that in some detail here.

The slogan “America first,” as for me, means that America minds its own business and does not interfere anywhere else. Ok. This is correct, but it would be better for Mr. Trump to think about where to get $9.3 trillion without resorting to the Fed’s printing press which will simply accelerate the inflation, devalue the USD and raise retail prices, i.e., exactly what Americans are actively against.

Global markets and economic indexes show now that investors are already moving away from US bonds, stocks and USD because of America's debt, Mr. Trump's import tariffs, etc. And then there's this war with Iran... The USD has already lost over 9% to the main world currencies (index DXY) since January 2025 thanks to Mr. Trump's innovations. We'll see how all markets react on Monday to the American attack on Iran, but the price of oil has naturally already gone up.

In addition to the economic problems, the US has a lot of other important domestic stuff to do (for example, healthcare is one of the biggest concerns for the Americans), but instead of real “America first,” Mr. Trump offers the nation his terrible activity abroad - to appease an aggressive Russia, to fight a little in the Middle East, to reshape international trade with the help of absurd import tariffs... It is more convenient to solve unsolvable international problems than to put things in order at home.


P.S. It is a pity that Mr. Trump cannot repeat his “peace through strength” trick with Mr. Putin for his criminal war in Ukraine. I am sure that this would be welcomed by most Americans and I would be the first to support Mr. Trump’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.