“The U.S. Teeters on All-Out War with Iran” headline by the Washington Post (WP) sets the tone for a spate of articles over the weekend on the imminent breakout of an expanded war. The WP reported that squadrons of fighter jets and refueling aircraft from military bases in Europe are now headed to the Middle East, an unprecedented strategic escalation. It quoted a senior US official as saying that “the United States is preparing for large-scale military operations against Iran while simultaneously bolstering its military presence in the region.” WP also warned, citing an unnamed U.S. official: “The US is planning for a wider war,” but the U.S. supply of air defense interceptor and missile supplies is dwindling. “We do not have enough to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the White House is aware of that.”
A CNN analysis suggested that “a decisive US military victory over Iran seems a distant prospect.” A senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, Sina Toosi, warned that a ground operation “in extreme summer heat... against a fully mobilized military and a population that has largely rallied around the war effort, would be an extraordinary gamble practically guaranteed to be a historic disaster.” And the Wall Street Journal quoted Saeid Golkar, an expert on Iran’s security services: “This escalation is rapidly intensifying and getting out of control. There is a risk we will go back to a total war even if neither side wants it.”
