How bombing Iran may blow back on America

[CHICAGO] It is hard to begrudge those who celebrate the demise of Iranian theocrats who have gunned down passels of their people – some estimates reach as high as 30,000 in just the last few months. At the same time, the aerial assault on Iran launched by the US and Israel heralds a period of undisciplined, unlawful and arbitrary violence that will be hard to contain.

Americans, and their notional friends on the world stage, should look beyond the unpopular targets of today’s violence and ask how such violence could be applied tomorrow.

With a president who is unbeholden to facts or legality, the answer is discomforting: State violence could be used not only in the international sphere, and not only against tyrannical regimes, but also at home, against those deemed domestic “enemies”.