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  "path": "/26/03/why-attack-iran",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-02T14:08:50.000Z",
  "site": "https://kottke.org",
  "tags": [
    "Timothy Snyder offers a useful perspective",
    "Donald Trump",
    "iran",
    "politics",
    "Timothy Snyder",
    "war"
  ],
  "textContent": "There are many possible and plausible answers to this simple question. Timothy Snyder offers a useful perspective in helping answer it:\n\n> How do [we] understand the war with Iran? We must get away from the propaganda and ask why this might be happening, in light of the facts that we do know.\n>\n> These facts suggest two interpretive frameworks: a foreign war as a mechanism to destroy democracy at home; and a foreign war as an element of personal corruption by the president of the United States.\n>\n> From the United States, the most plausible angle of view is domestic politics, not foreign policy.\n\nTrump is not a conventionally intelligent person and is losing his wits to age, but he remains an instinctual genius. There’s no grand plan here and there doesn’t need to be; he’s just moving towards his flame: enrichment for himself, entrenching power, and instability for everyone else.\n\n**Tags:** Donald Trump · iran · politics · Timothy Snyder · war",
  "title": "Why Attack Iran?",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-02T14:08:50.000Z"
}