Rachel Maddow

It is 1 p.m.

Eastern time and you are joining MSNOW's ongoing coverage of the United States having apparently started a war with Iran for some reason.

Your guess, your personal guess, sitting at home watching me right now, your personal guess is as good as any as to why the president of the United States has just started this war.

In terms of pure rational deduction about what he is doing here,

We can basically rule out all of the reasons he has said he's doing it.

Is Iran on the precipice of having ballistic missiles that can reach the United States?

Absolutely not.

The United States is very far from Iran.

One might even say it's a whole continent away, which means a ballistic missile launched from Iran to hit us here would have to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Does Iran have ICBMs?

Does Iran have intercontinental ballistic missiles?

No, it does not.

And there is no known evidence or even serious allegation that Iran is anywhere near developing that technology anytime soon.

Even Trump's secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has recently admitted that, admitting that the threat is only that maybe, quote, one day Iran might have that kind of capability.

One day.

Just like you or I might one day learn to fly or to time travel.

Is Iran a week away from industrial-grade uranium enrichment?

As the president's diminutive real estate friend Steve Witkoff asserted this week when he was asked about the Iran talks he is inexplicably part of on behalf of the United States government and the people of the United States, despite his only relevant experience and training being that he is an old real estate friend of President Donald Trump.

Is Iran, as Steve Witkoff says, a week away from achieving industrial-grade uranium enrichment for their nuclear program?

No, they are not.