A prelude to the next confrontation

Massive amounts of military equipment were sent to Russia; most of the drones the Russians use to bomb Ukrainian cities come from Iran.

- 

But when bombs started raining on Iran, the Russians did nothing. China also remained an outside spectator. And the so-called BRICS—the organization Iran joined in 2024 amid promises that it would act as a counter-weight to the Western-dominated world—was nowhere to be seen.

Of course, nobody expected either Russia or China to come to blows with the US over Iran. But in reaching his decision to bomb, President Trump did not even feel the need to take Russian or Chinese opinions into account. As the US President put it, no other country could have packed the punch the US displayed in the Middle East. And no other country remains more critical to the future of that key region. One does not need to like, admire, or approve of US actions to acknowledge such facts.

Mr. Trump, the man who claimed to be determined to avoid foreign entanglements, has shown that he is willing to plunge into military interventions. And he has also proven that he can exercise decisive influence in the Middle East without being obsessed with micro-managing that region and without becoming the strategic prisoner of Israel, a fate that befell most of his predecessors in the White House.