I remember sitting in a hospital room following the birth of my younger daughter watching reports of the early days of the first Gulf War. The U.S. hasn’t stopped fighting wars in the Middle East since. That daughter is now 35 and has a child of her own.

However, of all the ill-conceived wars undertaken, fought, lost and mismanaged in that period, the latest, launched early Saturday by Donald Trump, may be the most incoherently planned or justified… and it could also be the most dangerous if not resolved quickly.

Without the approval of Congress that the law requires, without evidence that Iran poses a growing threat to the U.S., following repeated assertions we had months ago “obliterated” any threat it may once have posed, amid myriad conflicting reasons for even going to war, a U.S. president who is a serial draft dodger who covets both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor on Saturday morning launched the third major military operation of his second term in office.

What is more, his Operation Epic Fury may have thrown the entire Middle East into chaos primarily to distract from his growing problems and scandals at home.

In conjunction with the Israelis, American forces launched wide-spread aerial attacks on targets across Iran. In announcing the raids early on Saturday morning, President Donald Trump indicated that the objective of the assaults was regime change. Independent reports and initial aerial photography indicate that among those sites targeted by the U.S. and the Israelis were military facilities and locations believed to be the residences of top Iranian officials including the country’s Supreme Leader and its president.

Trump called the effort “massive and ongoing.” Trump’s call for regime change in Iran comes less than a day after him also calling for regime change in Cuba and weeks after a raid to decapitate the leadership of Venezuela, a pattern of active intervention in foreign governments unseen by the U.S. since the height of the Cold War.

Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu stated, “Israel and the U.S. embarked on an operation to remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran, I thank our great friend Donald Trump for his historic leadership.”

In response, Iran launched missile and drone attacks on targets across the Middle East including reportedly in Israel, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Videos appearing on social media showed some apparent missile attacks being intercepted while others produced significant explosions. Initial reports suggested most of the aerial attacks were thwarted by air........

© The Daily Beast