[CCIP]

Yes, because Israel is the only country in the region that is populated by people.

Look, I understand the military implications of this, and from all signs this war is likely already inevitable. It's not solely Israel's fault; the international community is really letting everyone down here. I have always considered and still consider this whole thing resolvable, if only the pressure and sanctions on Iran were more determined and less than token. Nobody seems to care enough to enforce peaceful measures, and everybody seems to have developed this tunnel vision of "oh well, Israel's gonna bomb them anyway..."

Other than that, I don't care what Bibi's military background and losses are. By the same token, we could sing praises to that great WWI ace, Hermann Goering, as a model of a politician and humanitarian leader who understood the implications of war. Or, you know, any other terrible bloody person who also happened to be a war hero at some point. One doesn't exclude the other.

My real concern is the pathetic, inhumane marketing of this war that Netanyahu's government is engaged in. His childish bomb graphic and his peddling of this to the Arab world on cold, dirty politics should offend any civilized person. What you have to understand is that this is a war that will come at a cost of tens of thousands Iranian civilians, who have nothing to do with the nuclear program, to be dead, injured, homeless, poisoned, and otherwise suffering. And you're going to reduce it to a risk calculation and hedge it in terms like "threat" or a silly bomb graphic? Really? Lao Tze said it's okay to press the button and kill tens of thousands of people? Who else? Tell me more about how noble and great it is to bomb other countries and blow up nuclear facilities.

There is no moral justification for this, particularly as the whole thing would be avoidable given enough international will. From where I stand, Israel's leadership is not solely responsible for it at all, but their position has been narrow-minded and anti-humanitarian. I think the fact that several posters here have successfully ignored the fact that Iran is also populated by humans really nails that message home for me. If you are willing to conveniently ignore that on the scale of national policy, then your society deserves no protection from anything.