So Al Jazzeera is reporting that a deal is near, but one which gives Iran almost everything and the US almost nothing. Supposedly the Strait will be open, but only to ships which pay a toll. The US will cease its blockade, which isn’t doing much anyway, apparently. We will release billions in frozen assets, promise not the do it again, and Israel will promise not to attack Lebanon at any time in the future.

All of this sounds incredibly unlikely, even for someone as bad at negotiating as Trump, so I will wait and see before passing judgment.

In other news, I watched a documentary about December 7, 1941 last night on Netflix; I frequently find things on World War II that look at things from another angle, or sometimes the same angle just with new footage, so I watch. And as I watched, and heard FDR’s speech for the 200th time, the words “premeditated and dastardly attack” came to my mind and formed a question:

“How much notice did we give Iran that we were about to start bombing for Operation Epic Fury? Because part of the American revulsion about Dec 7 was that we were still negotiating with Japan to try to get them to reign in their hopes of Empire and conquest, and it was clear they had planned the attack many days, even weeks and months prior.

So I have to ask: Did we alert Iran that we were about to bomb strategic targets, or declare war, or do any of those things for which we have so virulently and so long criticized others for doing to us? Or are surprise attacks only bad when the other guy does it?