War on Iran may provoke a terrorist attack in US - and that may be the point [View all]

War on Iran may provoke a terrorist attack in US – and that may be the point

Robert Tait
in Washington

‘Of course there’s going to be retaliation,’ says one expert. ‘It may be that this is what Trump’s interested in’


(Guardian) For decades, the US and its allies have painted Iran as the world’s biggest sponsor of state terrorism – invoking its Islamic rulers’ supposed revolutionary fanaticism and determined support for militant proxies.

Now a long-standing but mainly latent threat is coalescing, with the war waged on the country by the US and Israel, to raise the risk of an attack on American soil to levels unseen since the murderous al-Qaida assaults of 11 September 2001, experts say.

In an election year, opponents of Donald Trump are warning that such an event could rebound to his advantage – providing him with a pretext to crack down on critics by declaring a state of emergency or even cancelling November’s congressional midterm elections.

....(snip)....

Writing on Substack, the historian Timothy Snyder warned that a terrorist attack could work in Trump’s favor and might even explain his reasoning for launching the military action.

“A purpose of the war on Iran might well be to provoke a terrorist attack inside the United States,” Snyder wrote. “This would provide Donald Trump with a pretext to try to cancel or ‘federalize’ the coming congressional elections. ..............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/15/us-iran-war-terrorist-attack