The new Trump-Netanyahu escalation - and new TACO (for the moment) - in the Iran War

Trump’s completely deranged public threat to wipe out all of Iranian civilization is further evidence of his unfitness for any position of responsibility, much less President of the United States in command of its nuclear arsenal.

Zeteo provided this early reaction to the latest TACO, including the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi: (1)



Peter Beaumont explains the key problem with Trump’s and Netanyahu’s regime-change-by-bombing approach to regime change in Iran this way:

Will the national humanitarian disaster visited on millions of Iranians make them love the United States? Israel has already learned a lesson or two from imposing horrifying humanitarian sanctions on Gaza residents, only to realize too late that they lead to no strategic gains and merely turn it into a pariah. (1)

Zvi Bar'el elaborates on the same theme:

Even if Trump pushes back his deadline once again, recent history does not suggest that strikes on infrastructure – widely seen as war crime – are likely to force Iran on to a new path.

More recent than Lebanon is the experience of Ukraine under four years of sustained Russian bombardment, after Moscow’s own illegal war of aggression. That culminated this year in Kyiv’s worst winter of blackouts as Russia hammered the country’s heating and power plants, but failed to force Ukraine to concede. (2)

Wajahat Ali interviews Robert Pape on the state of affairs after Trump’s latest TACO – however long or short of a time it may last. Pape is the historian of strategic bombing who has been warning that Iran has had “escalation dominance” in the current war against the US and Israel. Among other things, Pape warns that Israel may very well be a “spoiler” once again on the new two-week ceasefire. (4)



Notes:

(1) Mehdi Hasan and Experts REACT to Trump's Iran Decision. Zeteo YouTube channel 03/07/2026. <https://www.youtube.com/live/X-6Li9Az7Yk?si=zDNq5Gq1_gQhcnkO> (Accessed: 2026-08-04).

(2) Beaumont, Peter (2026): Will bombing Iran back to the ‘stone ages’ achieve any war objectives? Guardian 04/07/2026. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/07/will-bombing-iran-back-to-the-stone-ages-achieve-any-war-objectives> (Accessed: 2026-07-04).

(3) Bar'el, Zvi (2026): Will bombing Iran back to the ‘stone ages’ achieve any war objectives? Haaretz 04/07/2026. <https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-security/2026-04-03/ty-article/.premium/no-matter-which-path-he-chooses-trump-will-pay-a-heavy-price-for-the-iran-war/0000019d-4f5a-d257-a5dd-6fdb0cb50000?gift=7dff37e4654d499ea8646c3a4df5a1a3> (Accessed: 2026-07-04).

(4) BREAKING NEWS! Trump and Iran Agree to a Ceasefire Deal: Will It Hold and What's the Blowback? Wahahat Ali YouTube channel 04/08/2026. <https://youtu.be/ZjOMfGrFc-c?si=tU53Qmelqhh9Tb4r> (Accessed: 2026-08-04).