Thomas Small

And also, now I remember, it's not correct to say that they were enthusiastic exactly.

You know, the whole war that was launched on the 28th of February did sort of happen in a quite unexpected and chaotic way.

The region was adjusting to decisions that the White House took when the protests were launched at the end of December, early January.

And Donald Trump began to tweet those very heroic tweets that we all remember.

We're coming to your...

rescue, go out, protest.

Now, my understanding is that that was not pre-planned.

That response to those protests was not actually in a coordinated way planned.

And it moved forward some plans for resuming the aggression against Iran, which last June had had a first phase.

It forced it to move forward a few months.

That's my understanding.

It makes sense of what actually happened.

And the Gulf allies were therefore wary of the drumbeat of war starting in January and then continuing into February.

That's why at the time you remember those reports saying things like,

you know, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, MBS, saying publicly, you know, we need to return to diplomacy, but then calls to Donald Trump being like, go for it, go for it.

The truth is actually more in the middle.

Those calls to Donald Trump were like,

go for it if you have a plan.

Like, is this going to work?

Are you doing this properly?