Operation Epic Fury has developed from a war to deprive Iran of nuclear weapons into a political war of blame. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Marco Rubio told reporters at the Capitol last night. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them [Iran] before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

The rationale came as a surprise to lawmakers. It sounded as though Israel had effectively bounced America into military action. Trump had told the American people from the outset that the war was to defang Iran of its nuclear weapons program as well as its ballistic missile capability. Regime change was optional.

Some lawmakers, such as Mark Warner, Democratic vicechair of the Senate intelligence committee, were furious after the closed-door briefing by Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Dan Caine. Warner has said since: “There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel. If we equate a threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States, then we are in uncharted territory.”

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Speaker Mike Johnson said Israel and the US were left with no choice by the Iranian regime. “Israel was determined to act in their........

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