About three weeks ago, Israel's former national security advisor, Yaakov Amidroar,

granted an interview to an Israeli radio station in which he remarked that Israel must prepare

for war.

It's possible, he said, that we will reach a point where we have to

attack Iran even without American assistance. In light of a recent agreement with Saudi Arabia

that Iran secured under the auspices of China, General Amidur observed in that same interview

that Iran is relatively confident and that America is not focused on the

Middle East. Now, on that latter point, General Amidroar is perhaps correct that the focus of

U.S. foreign policy is absorbed by Russia's war in Ukraine, by the immigration crisis, on America's

southern border, and perhaps most of all by America's deepening tension with China.

Nevertheless, two recent signals about the American military's attention on the Middle East

are worth mentioning by way of context.

First, the U.S. Navy has recently sent an Ohio-class nuclear submarine through the Suez Canal

on its way to the Persian Gulf.

The United States usually does not release pictures indicating the whereabouts of its submarines

while they're at sea, but the navies of the Middle East were put on notice that the USS Florida

is cruising their waters. Second, just last week it was reported that the U.S. Air Force has sent a

squadron of A-10 Warthog aircraft to the Middle East. The whart hogs were recently refitted to each

carry 16 G-B-R39B bombs, bombs known colloquially as bunker busters. So, while General Amidore's perception that the United States is not focused on deterring Iranian-funded

terrorism, regional attacks, or continued enrichment and weaponization of its nuclear program,

while this perception may be right in some general sense,

nevertheless, over the last month,

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