Rachel Maddow

government in coalition with other allies that you might have bothered to bring on board, you might have given the Iranian police and Revolutionary Guard and security services some instructions on how to surrender and lay down their weapons.

Some path to do that, which Trump did not.

As I say, you might have taken steps to turn the Internet back on in Iran.

So the people there, the people, the Iranian people could reach each other and the world.

And so the world could reach them, too.

If you actually wanted the Iranian people to have a chance rising up against the regime that has oppressed them for so many decades, you might not have gutted the crucial Farsi language voice of America communications platform and put it in the hands of a soft focus election denier, local news anchor, who is most famous for proclaiming the fraudulence of American elections.

If this is a regime change war, as Trump says it is,

Because Trump is seriously hoping the Iranian people will complete the job for him.

It is worth knowing that there has been no serious or even unserious effort by the United States to make it possible, let alone plausible, for any uprising by the Iranian people to succeed.

And so why did Donald Trump just start this war?

Why is this happening?

Qui bono, right?

Who benefits?

It's always useful to start that question in any country.

Who benefits?

Who wants Iran bombed off the map and for their own reasons?

Who are Iran's rivals and enemies?

Perennially, it's the Gulf Arab states, countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

You know, Qatar, a country that just gave Donald Trump a really, really nice $400 million plane, really a gilded flying palace for his own use, both during the presidency, during his presidency and after Trump plans to take that plane with him and keep using it after he leaves office, if he ever leaves office.

And you remember the United Arab Emirates.