Subject: kidding ourselves
Regarding the Middle East.

From the NYT:

Diplomats around the world are telling these parties to keep a lid on it. And the groups themselves say they do not want a wider regional war.

summary of succeeding paragraphs: [Iran, Israel, and Hezbollah have said they don't want a regional war.]

...

Bader Al-Saif, a historian at Kuwait University, lamented “the amount of denialism surrounding this basic fact.” Pretending as if the actual conflict is yet to arrive, he said, risks “normalizing death, violence, fear, dispossession, hunger and lack of dignity across the Middle East.”

Also strife in Yemen (assassination), the Houthis, and Hezbollah launching attacks. Hamas has actually said they want a regional war, and they may be the only ones that see they have achieved it.