I was entirely expecting this to happen so they could wage another forever war. I’m thankful they haven’t done it yet, but given they have a habit of lying and starting invasions, I’m a bit surprised it hasn’t happened.
I hope I’m not getting to conspiracy-brained here.
It would be an unnecessary and unwelcome action.
The United States can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants. It will be rationalize after the fact. If the government harnesses the entirety of para-state media power to justify a war against Iran (ie, with a false flag or a WMD esque discourge) then it ‘loses control’ and has to put boots on the ground. Or fold.
The forever war is already being waged. It is all across the middle east and they only just now collapsed Syria after 14 years of hybrid warfare. Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Yemen are all perennial targets of the forever war.