[tristanj]

I explained the primary cause of this war here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47684632

This war is happening today, to exchange a future nuclear war with Iran with a conventional war today. The US and Israel can fight a conventional war with Iran. They cannot fight a nuclear one. In a nuclear war, Israel would be destroyed by nuclear missiles in the two days. The possibility of a nuclear Iran is an existential crisis for Israel, and Israel will do anything possible to prevent Iran from gaining nukes.

That is why we have this conventional war happening today, (with unclear goals), to prevent a nuclear one in the future.

This war was unavoidable btw, it was going to happen sometime this year or next.

[finebalance]

> This war was unavoidable btw, it was going to happen sometime this year or next.

Iran was, as per the latest reports I've read, complying with terms and not enriching uranium to weapons-grade or close to weapons-grade. Are there credible reports suggesting otherwise?

[tristanj]

Those reports are old. IAEA inspectors have not been able to access any of Iran's nuclear facilities since the start of the 12 day war on June 13, 2025. Currently, nobody knows what Iran is doing with their nuclear material.

[consp]

If only there was an agreement in place to help with that. Oh wait, that got canned by someone when started this nonsense.

[pphysch]

What do you make of Netanyahu claiming that Iran was weeks from a nuclear bomb, 20-30 years ago?

What do you make of US/Israel assassinating the supreme leader that had declared a fatwa against nuclear weapons?

> This war was unavoidable btw

Wars of choice, thousands of miles away from the nearest US city, are extremely avoidable, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[computerex]

This is fantasy with no real evidence to support this view.

[jonathanstrange]

Although it might reflect actual considerations of Israel and, by extension, the US, that's ultimately a very unreasonable take. Iran might not have been trying to build nuclear weapons in the past, as they claimed. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. In contrast, Iran will try to build nuclear weapons in the future with certainty. They'd be insane not to try now, after having been bombed for weeks in an illegal war of aggression against them and having been threatened with massive war crimes and genocide.