“The black S.U.V. carrying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House just before 11 a.m. on Feb. 11. The Israeli leader, who had been pressing for months for the #UnitedStatesOfAmerica to agree to a major assault on #Iran, was whisked inside with little ceremony, out of view of #reporters, primed for one of the most high-stakes moments in his long career.”

“Mr. #Netanyahu and his team outlined conditions they portrayed as pointing to near-certain victory: Iran’s ballistic missile program could be destroyed in a few weeks.

The regime would be so weakened that it could not choke off the #StraitOfHormuz, and the likelihood that Iran would land blows against U.S. interests in neighboring countries was assessed as minimal.”

As near a root-cause analysis as you will get. Did the USA government try regime change in the wrong country?

#NYT / #JonathanSwan / #MaggieHaberman / #Israel / #IsraelConflict <https://nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-iran-war.html>