Ben Rhodes

Now, we know Israel wants this.

I mean, Bibi Netanyahu has been pushing for this for a very long time.

And he finally got this kind of window with Trump because he sees that Trump is a guy that is willing to ignore Congress and public opinion.

Trump's a guy who, frankly, has done what Bibi Netanyahu has wanted to do before, whether it was moving the U.S.

embassy to Jerusalem or the 12-day war.

And one thing that I was thinking about, Tommy,

is that it doesn't matter how many days he bombs Iran.

We are in a forever war with Iran.

One way to think about this is the 12-day war was not a 12-day war.

This is still part of the war.

Once you start bombing a country, this is the same war as the 12-day war that's happening.

Just because you periodically stop bombing doesn't mean you're not in a forever war.

And so Trump can spin it however he wants to MAGA supporters from Tucker Carlson to his own vice president who have political identities based on opposing this.

But the reality is that we are in this and the world is going to see whatever happens in Iran next,

they're gonna see as the responsibility of the United States and Donald Trump personally.

And as we talked about, whether it's civil conflict, refugee flows into other countries, major energy disruptions in the Straits of Hormuz, periods of calm followed by periods of dramatic violence.

I mean, this could go all kinds of ways,

But the one thing we know is that Iran is now added to that list of forever wars.

And it's the biggest country yet that we've tried to do this in.

And we're doing it with no boots on the ground.