(JNS) Why did US President Donald Trump attack Iran?
Ask many newspapers and television panels across Europe, and you will hear a familiar answer: because he is an imperialist, reckless and aggressive. That is the dominant explanation repeated across much of the continent’s media and political discourse.
According to this narrative, Trump acts out of arrogance and geopolitical ambition. Following closely behind him, critics say, is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, often portrayed in the same commentary as a dangerous provocateur. Together, they become convenient symbols of Western aggression.
Yet this interpretation ignores the central fact that has defined Middle Eastern politics for more than four decades: The Islamic Republic of Iran has built a vast system of ideological warfare, military expansion and terrorism directed not only at Israel but at the West as a whole.
Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the regime has declared its intention to destroy both Israel and the United States—the “Little Satan” and the “Great Satan.” This was not...
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