First, an effect of the disruption inside the Iranian regime will be a difficulty in reading how information is being shared across a bombed-out and bloodied-up decision structure. Outstanding Israeli intelligence work may not be enough to counteract that. The reality could be that it simply has to be accepted as part of US/I’s day-to-day actions and decisions. It’s a good thing in war for the side that cuts and slices its enemy’s decision-loop. Something similar happened in the Japanese regime in the first two weeks of August 1945. Chaotic to the point of anarchical, which could have had devastating unintended consequences but, as a result of small yet vital decisions made by a handful of Japanese leaders, did not occur.

Second, speaking of that August fortnight in 1945, Down River (“the future” in my parlance of The River) may have something in store for us that we don’t want to experience. I’m referring to the use of a weapon(s) never before seen or used in war. The decision to use or not to use such a thing will be made in the context of unexpected, and unexpectedly effective, resistance to US/I attacks. If such a moment arrives, the moral basis of the war will move quickly to the forefront of debate, disagreement, and dissent. This movement will then lean much, more harder on the existing internal condition of the American identity. That eventuality would be extraordinarily difficult. Let’s hope such a current in The River will not come to pass. To return to 1945, the American identity was in a significantly different condition then as compared to now.