What an attentive friend America is, steadying a disorderly world and making it safer for Australians everywhere.

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Imagine if dependable ol' Uncle Sam was, instead, flighty, self-obsessed, and given to sudden, explosive violence. Were that true, he might carelessly put a hundred thousand of our nationals directly in harm's way without so much as a phone call.

He might imperil our economy and undermine global security through ill-considered acts of aggression that breach international law.

He might even touch off an unpredictable regional melee while articulating no clear mission objectives of his own - at least none that his cabinet can agree on.

Imagine further that, contrary to Mark Carney's rosy picture of Australia as "a self-possessed and confident nation", in practice, we would make no criticism of American recklessness and express no qualms over principles trashed, processes ignored, or strategic risk assessments not undertaken.

Harsh? Unfair, even? All of these things - including the Canadian Prime Minister's transparently gushing complement - occurred in the last eight days.

It is barely a week since the first rumours of unexplained explosions in Tehran emerged.

Reports soon referenced an Israeli operation, and then we learned that the US was also involved. Another hour or two passed and a characteristically weird Donald Trump video appeared, the President wearing a silly hat and woodenly declaring the US was at war.

But what was this? A new foreign entanglement? Where were its legal grounds and where was the public case to Congress, the American people, Western allies?

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