Well, yes, it may be that it will work this time. Perhaps the Angels of Peace and Love will float down onto the arid plains and jagged mountains of ancient Persia, borne on the wings of a B2 bomber, or riding on the fins of a bunker-busting bomb.
It is about time one of these high explosive interventions in the Near East turned out well. Just because everything went wrong in Suez, Baghdad, Kabul, Damascus and Tripoli, there’s no reason to be sure it won’t work now. Operation ‘Midnight Hammer’ may have hit the nail on the head. But there is good reason to be cautious.
People are strangely and dangerously exhilarated by ultra-violence of this kind. It is enjoyable to watch the films on YouTube. And power thrills us all, whether we want it to or not.
Political leaders, too, are gripped by it. They love to step aside from boring reforms or difficult problems like unemployment and inflation. When the military men come into the Oval Office, a president knows that these people will do what they promise and the public will love it.
The USA, having attacked a sovereign nation without warning, and without UN permission, can never again reproach Russia or China – or Iran – for doing the same
And it is possible that Iran will now give up its nuclear programme. It is possible that its regime will fall and be replaced by liberal democrats. It is possible that a new era of reconciliation between Israel and Iran will now begin. But I will wait a bit before concluding that.
As it happens, we do not even know how well the giant bombs worked – air forces have always tended to think they do more damage than they actually do. It is also possible that none of those things will happen and that Iran will continue to pound Israel with missiles in a vicious duel Tehran did not begin.
Even worse, the Iranians may decide to attack US bases, ships and people in the Middle East. Or they might decide to wreck the world’s tottering economy by closing the Strait of Hormuz to oil and gas.
The Iranian people endured a terrible war against Saddam Hussein’s Western-backed Iraq from 1980 to 1988. They might collapse now. But they might not. I don’t know. Nor does anyone else. Nor, especially, does Donald Trump.
One thing I noticed about the Washington press conference yesterday was that it was a celebration of pure might, a list of the USA’s costly arsenal of planes, bombs, missiles and ships.
But this is all inherited from more prosperous days. Will America always be superior to the rest of the world? Or will China one day be able to hold such press conferences, including one in which China’s defence chief will describe how its powerful Navy was able to seize Taiwan with ease?
Trump’s press conference was a celebration of pure might, a list of the USA’s costly arsenal. But this is all inherited from more prosperous days. Pictured, a US GBU-57 bunker-buster bomb
A B-2 Spirit returns to Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, from a deployment to Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, in May
Perhaps, when asked if the action was legal, he will smile, chuckle and say to reporters: ‘Your President Trump did not care much about that, did he?’
As the Bible points out: ‘When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.’
President Trump may not like to be reminded of it, but the power he now has is based upon law. It is the law that makes him President. And to some extent, the laws of war and diplomacy limit what he can do and help to give America its current standing in the world.
The USA, having attacked a sovereign nation without warning, and without UN permission, can never again reproach Russia or China – or Iran – for doing the same.
They will just jeer. In his own country, Mr Trump is also in trouble with the War Powers Act, passed by both houses of Congress to rein in another proud White House tenant rather fond of bombing other people’s countries, Richard Nixon.
It says the President can order America’s armed forces into action abroad only by declaration of war by Congress, by ‘statutory authorisation’, or where there is ‘a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces’. I do not think these rules have been obeyed.
One day not long from now, I rather think ex-President Donald Trump will be sitting in an easy chair in his Florida home, a table covered in bottles of medicinal pills at his elbow, his fingers trembling as he grips his walking stick, and watches, on a huge screen, the latest developments in the Middle East War he started all those years ago.
Will Israel be safer thanks to all this? Will any of us be safer? Or is it just another forever war, with the distant sound of screams kept from us only by the curve of the earth’s surface?
