Ben Rhodes

in the early days, or do they periodically do these waves of strikes and try to make this war hurt for people in Israel and the United States and the region over time?

I agree with you.

It's interesting.

There are strikes on the Gulf countries, and they hit just about everyone except Oman, and that was interesting.

Oman was the one that was not hit.

Some of them were just, you know, strikes at U.S.

military facilities.

And that makes sense.

And no surprise.

These other strikes that include like drone attacks, you know, like as you referenced on places like Dubai and Bahrain, it does seem like that the message they're trying to send is, you

So long as we are under attack, you are not secure.

And yes, they're taking the risk that certainly the Gulf governments now will probably feel potentially more inclined to allow the U.S.

to use bases to attack Iran.

Thus far, a lot of the Gulf countries have opted out of that or maybe even participate themselves.

But you also make the point that the U.S.

doing this in conjunction with Israel is

you know, the publics in these countries will surely be mad at Iran for what they're doing.

But also I think we'll blame Israel, who there's no love for in the region, as well as the United States for launching this war.

And essentially the sense that the US and Israel are involved in kind of a strategy of creating chaos in the region.

you know, that whether it's the strikes in Lebanon or Syria or Yemen or now Iran, that there's this kind of moving wrecking ball of chaos that is harming people.