Susan Glasser

And so one thing is we don't tend to bluff in using this many military assets.

Two, there are reports that I think are credible that some kind of military follow-on operation had been previously agreed to between the United States and the Israelis.

And that what we're just seeing now is that playing out.

I think that is credible.

reporting.

You know, and then three, there is the question of, you know,

events inside Iran itself with this horrific massacre of tens of thousands.

I think Trump used the number in his speech last night of more than 30,000 dead protesters around the country.

And that number could well climb.

This is a horrific massacre, one of the largest in modern times.

By contrast, Tiananmen Square and the killings there by the Chinese government were far, far

fewer people.

And so the enormous scale of the killing is underscoring, I think, the perilousness of the situation for the Iranian regime in ways that might encourage a president of the United States to strike now and to go after them when they are potentially more vulnerable than they've been in years.

Yeah, I mean, Trump is attracted to these militarized displays of force, you know, quick, lethal, and, you know, easily moved on from.

And I think that some of the more maximalist descriptions we've heard of possible U.S.

action here, including, you know, going after regime leadership type figures, you know, that's so destabilizing.

Iran is not...

Venezuela, it's at the heart of the Middle East.

It's positioned on the Persian Gulf.

I mean, you could go on for all the reasons why unleashing chaos, disarray, and retaliatory fury on the part of the Iranians that would come against American targets and Iranian targets.