Understand The Times, International

President Trump is using the phrase �locked and loaded� to describe our current stance toward Iran, and the big news networks appear to believe that some sort of U.S. military action could be imminent. We just witnessed the worst attack on Saudi oil production facilities in history, and it would seem to be extremely unlikely that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia would allow this to pass with no response. Houthi rebels in Yemen have publicly taken responsibility for the attacks, but as you will see below, U.S. officials have already completely rejected that explanation for a variety of reasons. At this point, we are being told that the attacks probably originated either from Iranian-backed Shia rebels in southern Iraq or from Iran itself. And if the U.S. strikes back by conducting airstrikes inside Iran, that could literally cause World War 3 to erupt. We are so close to a major war breaking out, but most Americans are still not paying attention.

President Trump certainly sounds like he is ready to take military action. On Sunday, he tweeted the following...

Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!

Is it just me, or does that make it sound like we will strike whoever the Saudis blame for the attack? That is potentially very dangerous, because the Saudis seriously hate the Iranians, and there are many in the Saudi government that would like nothing more than for the U.S. military to bomb the living daylights out of Iran.

So what would a U.S. attack on Iran look like? Well, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has suggested hitting Iran�s oil refineries�

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the United States should consider an attack on Iran�s oil refineries in retaliation. Senator Graham, a strong ally of President Trump, tweeted: �It is now time for U.S. to put on the table an attack on Iranian oil refineries if they continue their provocations or increase nuclear enrichment.�

The Iranians have completely denied responsibility, but if they are attacked they insist that they are prepared for a �full-fledged� war, and they are warning that all U.S. targets within 2,000 kilometers �are within the range of our missiles��

Amirali Hajizadeh, head of Iran�s Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force, warned that US military bases were within range of Iranian missiles. He told Tasnim news agency: �Everybody should know that all American bases and their aircraft carriers in a distance of up to 2,000km around Iran are within the range of our missiles.�

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Lawrence Korb, former US Assistant Defense Secretary, said the last thing Trump wants is a conflict with Iran. �If we would attack Iran, then we would have a very, very violent conflict that would spread throughout the whole Gulf,� he said.

I hardly ever agree with anything that is said on Al Jazeera, but in this case Lawrence Korb is precisely correct. Such a war would draw in the entire Middle East, it would be the deadliest war the world has seen since World War 2, and it would set the stage for things that most Americans don�t want to think about. So let�s hope that a peaceful way out of this crisis can be found. Unfortunately, that appears to be less likely than ever. Hopefully I am wrong, but military action appears to be imminent, and the situation in the Middle East is about to dramatically shift in a major way.